iPod is the iPod a gateway drug?

[BornAgainMac]

My old iMac G3 DV was my very first mp3 player using some app called Music Match. Then I got the iPod. So the Halo effect was the Mac first in my case. I bought the iPod because I knew that Apple made really good products judging from their Mac lineup.

 

[Shadow]

The purchase of my iPod and MacBook are totally separate, and are not linked in any way.

 

[aricher]

Do a google search on "iPod Halo Effect." The percentage of switchers due to the iPod is lower than you would think.

 

[72930]

Do a google search on "iPod Halo Effect." The percentage of switchers due to the iPod is lower than you would think.

People say that they weren't affected, while in fact the halo effect is probably the reason that a lot of first time mac users are here. Its not so much the integration, but the fact that you walk in to the store, or go onto the apple website for ipods/ipod accesories and when you're there you can't help but admire the macs. Thats certainly true for me; i was perfectly fine syncing my iPod with my PC. Seeing the apple logo certainly helps, even though people don't know that they're associating the two.

 

[roland.g]

1986: Apple IIe
1990: Mac Classic LC w/ Personal Laserwriter LS
1993: Performa Power PC
2000: PowerMac G4
2006: Mac Mini

2001: Original 5GB iPod
2002: Apple Retail Employee
2003: Retail Employee 10GB iPod
2004: 3G 40GB iPod
2004: No longer Apple Employee
2006: 8GB Black Nano

Apple Lifer.
Apple is my drug.

 

[old cholo]

yup

i got my first ipod after making fun of my partner, i mean i had a cd player and aaalll them cd's to carry. then i got my ipod a 60gphoto, now i own a nano amd i bought my 1st imac a few weeks ago, im hooked

 

[MacAnkka]

Considering that I bought my MacBook before I bought my iPod or even used iTunes, I'd have to say no.

 

[iJawn108]

I had to change computers and lost all my play lists on Windows Media Player... and I decided I really didn't like the interface but I stuck with it for another year or two. I remember getting the quicktime for windows software and being pissed with this "iTunes crap" I didn't know what it was at all so I cintinued using WMP and hating it to the point where i stopped listening to music all together on my computer. I thought "hey whats wrong here..." and I eventually heard about how easy it is to make play lists with iTunes. I opened it up for the first time... needless to say I had my entire windows machine skinned like tiger shortly. Which led me to look into os x, which lead to me realizing how awesome OS X is compared to windows. Last spring after finally having spare cash i made the leap and got my 512MB shuffle, omg did I love it(my mom has it now) I used it everyday to work and home and before bed and transferring data... I eventually decided on the core duo macbook in october.

 

[amd4me]

It was for me - A 2nd generation 20gb iPod (for Windows). That was pre iTunes for Windows days, when they shipped Musicmatch instead of iTunes.

Next came a 3rd gen 30gb iPod, a mini, a shuffle, a 17" iMac G5, a 20" iMac G5 (passed the 17" to my parents) and a 15" PowerBook G4.

Plus my brother got a 17" iMac G5 and an iPod at my recommendation, and my 4 groomsmen were given engraved 2nd gen shuffles as groomsmen's gifts at my wedding last month.

Damn I've given Apple a lot of money over the past few years!

Dumb question I know.
But all iPods are the same now right?
And whatever happened to the HP iPods?

 

[mrthieme]

My Dad set me up with his old g4 mini, I was hooked. The iPod came later for me.

 

[mike dunx]

I think so. I wanted a mac after using iTunes and having an iPod mini for a while. I had a few more iPods before I actually got a mac, But I think having an iPod and enjoying it so much really led me to other apple products.

 

[bbrosemer]

The PC itself is a pretty good gateway drug, being that the only OS I am confident in running on one is Server 2003 and that isnt cheap...

 

[dXTC]

Like balamw and zephead, iTunes got me first, about a year or so ago. Until then, I had toyed with MusicMatch, WinAmp and RealPlayer on my PC, and none really fit the bill (although WinAmp was OK with its Geiss visualization). I ended up playing my music files individually through WMP-- I didn't bother with playlists. Besides, I only had a 6 Gb HD at the time, so I didn't have room for too many MP3 files.

So when I built my current PC, I began digitizing virtually my entire music collection, and I revisited the latest versions of all of the above, and iTunes won. I figured that if iTunes was done well, the iPod can't be far behind.

After a while, I got my nano, and the two just worked. No convoluted configuration necessary. In Windoze, even.

That kind of forethought (and the arrival of Bootcamp) convinced me that my next computer will have that logo.

 

[sonofjabba]

Well I was a mac user until my senior year of high school when I jumped to PC's. I've been using and still mainly use PC's, however with windows vista being so over-hyped, and not what I really expected. I'm looking elsewhere anymore. I have a PowerMac G3 Rev 1 300Mhz with 768 Meg Ram running Panther I use for setting up iPods. And for a machine that is now pushing 8 Yes EIGHT years old it does a fine job... How Many PC's are still around that someone like me used to a 2.8GHz Pentium 4 Machine loaded to the gills, and I use that old box, and it always impresses the hell out of me...

I'd consider a new mac, but the price of a powermac is about double what I'd normally spend building my own PC. Although the PC doesn't hold it's value like the macs do! That old PowerMac is worth almost as much as my P4 1.7ghz Machine I'm selling...

But iPods are like crack.. After you try it once you can't put it down.... I should know I have like 20 of them.

 

[nickster9224]

itunes>4thgenipod>macbook

 

[robPOD]

well its true, way back in late 2004 i got a 4gb ipod mini, this led to a 4gb nano and an 80gb video. Recently (last week) my dad brought me a macbook. I really like apple products becuase the are simple "and just work". The ipod was a goooood gateway drug

 

[itsme92]

itunes>4thgenipod>macbook

Wow, that's exactly how it worked for me.

Actually, it was more like:

Hating WMP > Looking for alteratives>hearing about iTunes in the summer of 2004, after that, came the 4th gen iPod in October '04, and the Macbook in December '06

 

[steamboat26]

Perhaps, I hadn't really thought about it before. I bought my 1G Nano in October 2005 (i think) and then i bought my mini in April 2006.

 

[zephead]

And whatever happened to the HP iPods?

Apple and HP had a deal that lasted for a little while that HP could sell iPods and bundle iTunes on their new PC's. When the deal ended (after about a year, I think), HP dumped iTunes/hPods and got a deal with RealNetworks.

 

[CEAbiscuit]

Powerbook first (if you don't count the Macintosh SE) then a used 3G iPod.

 

[Lancetx]

The iTunes Music Store is what did it for me too. After hearing about it on the day when it was first introduced in April 2003, I went to the local Apple Store to see it for myself on one of the demo Macs there. About a week later, I went back to that same store and bought my first Mac. Then about 3 months after that, I was back again for my first iPod (a 15GB 3G). I've been hooked on Apple ever since.