iPod 5 years ago: Macrumors iPod reactions

[generationxwing]

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/apples-new-thing-ipod.500/

My favourite quotes:

"I still can't believe this! All this hype for something so ridiculous! Who cares about an MP3 player? I want something new! I want them to think differently!
Why oh why would they do this?! It's so wrong! It's so stupid!"

"I'd call it the Cube 2.0 as it wont sell, and be killed off in a short time...and it's not really functional."

"There are already two products similar to this on the market. The Nomad Jukebox and the Archos Jukebox which can come with a 20 gig HD. The iPod is obviously alot cooler and has firewire, but it is far from revolutionary. I for one am disappointed and think that apple is making a mistake by trying to get into this market."

"$399 is just too much for an MP3 jukebox. Sorry Steve, this isn't it..."

"the painful reality is that the market wants to move down on price and up on features ... that initial sticker shock will forever keep people away."

FOCUS: How has your opinion of the iPod changed over the last five years, especially those idiots who should Apple was insane to release such a "stupid" product?

 

[pianoman]

to be fair, $399 is a bit steep, even for the original iPod. however, it was seen as a luxury and not a commodity like it is today.

obviously it has come a long way. people are often skeptical about new products. Honda was laughed at when they first started making cars after being so successful with motorcycles and lawn mowers. now they're one of the biggest car manufacturers in the world.

 

[dextertangocci]

lol. I was reading those the other day. Quite shocking!

Also read the comments on MR when Apple announced they were switching to intel processors, and when iPhoto was released. LOL, everyone thought that they would fail

 

[Kingsly]

I like this one:

All that hype for an MP3 player? Break-thru digital device? The Reality Distiortion Field™ is starting to warp Steve's mind if he thinks for one second that this thing is gonna take off.

Guess that RDF worked a little too well!

 

[solvs]

I remember saying on another forum (before I found this one... which was good because that one sucked) that it was cool, but too expensive. I had no desire for one, but when the minis came out at $249, that was perfect. Then I sold it before the new models came out and later bought a shuffle. Now I'm giving that away and buying a nano. My Parents have one, my Sister's gone through a few, even my Niece has one. Even with that whole "the battery dies after a year" thing, the iPod is still going strong.

Not that we aren't right sometimes, but a lot of us were really wrong with this one.

 

[Eraserhead]

It was very different from what was out there, it's difficult to say that ease-of-use in tech sells, I remember with my 3g iPod and when people borrowed it the only thing i told them was that "menu" was back up the menus. Compared to one of my friends Creative Nomads with 15 buttons (which I never learnt to use :rollseyes: it was a miracle.)

 

[bousozoku]

At the time it was way too expensive for what it could do.

It seems to me that it supported mp3 and WAV files and that's pretty much it. It was different but for the price, it was just a more expensive rendition of other products already on the market. It had two special things going for it: iTunes and ease of use. Automatic synchronisation made it easy enough for anyone to use. It must have also sold several Macs since it wasn't available for Windows.

I waited until the fourth generation, just before the photo models, until I felt that the value was there. Now, they look a good value against the competition and the ease of use is so high that no other brand can touch it.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

At the time it was way too expensive for what it could do.

It seems to me that it supported mp3 and WAV files and that's pretty much it. It was different but for the price, it was just a more expensive rendition of other products already on the market. It had two special things going for it: iTunes and ease of use. Automatic synchronisation made it easy enough for anyone to use. It must have also sold several Macs since it wasn't available for Windows.

I waited until the fourth generation, just before the photo models, until I felt that the value was there. Now, they look a good value against the competition and the ease of use is so high that no other brand can touch it.

No, what it had going for it was three-fold.
1- ease of use
2- iTunes (including sync and iTMS)
3 (And this is the kicker)- 10 hour battery life. At the time, the Nomad with it's impressive 20 gig HDD gave your around 3 hours, or you had to use flash memory which maxed out around 64mb's or 128mb's to get around 12 hours of battery life.

 

[monke]

to be fair, $399 is a bit steep, even for the original iPod. however, it was seen as a luxury and not a commodity like it is today.

obviously it has come a long way. people are often skeptical about new products. Honda was laughed at when they first started making cars after being so successful with motorcycles and lawn mowers. now they're one of the biggest car manufacturers in the world.

Considering I bought my 3G 15 GB for just over $500 dollars (a week before they dropped the price ) $399 wasn't a bad price for something that was completely new.

Right now I would certainly pay $399 for a brand new 1G iPod, just for a collectors item though, nothing else. Apple should make Limited Edition 1st Generation iPod with all the features the iPod's have today. Sure it would be like taking a step back in time, but I wonder how many people would buy one?

 

[bousozoku]

No, what it had going for it was three-fold.
1- ease of use
2- iTunes (including sync and iTMS)
3 (And this is the kicker)- 10 hour battery life. At the time, the Nomad with it's impressive 20 gig HDD gave your around 3 hours, or you had to use flash memory which maxed out around 64mb's or 128mb's to get around 12 hours of battery life.

That's nice but there was no music store at the time.