A Recap of the iPod's Life

BDPrime writes "Here's a good look at the iPod's five-year existence and how, it can be argued, the device saved Apple from rotting away. From the story: 'It's hard to overstate the impact of the iPod on the computer, consumer electronics and music industries since it was introduced in 2001. The iPod, arguably, is the first crossover product from a computer company that genuinely caught on with music and video buffs. It's shown how a computer can be an integral part of a home entertainment system, and it's led pop stars from U2's Bono to Madonna to trade quips with Apple's own rock star, CEO Steve Jobs.'" Just to give a little bit of the other side of the story, not everyone loves the iPod. An anonymous reader wrote in with a link to research on unhealthy iPod listening levels at New Scientist. Additionally, Achromatic1978 writes to mention that the iPod has won a Shonky award from the Australians. I don't know what Shonky means, but I think that's bad.

Comments

Slashdot: Apple releases iPod

[LiquidCoooled]

No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.

Re:Slashdot: Apple releases iPod

[knightmad]

The pertinent article, for those who are not here that much time.

Re:Slashdot: Apple releases iPod

[morgan_greywolf]

It just doesn't make any sense, it's like Apple is using some jedi mind trick to sell overpriced average hardware.

And of course, when they've been the most successful at this game, it's been Steve Jobs behind the wheel.

You might be trolling, but I'm not. Steve Jobs is a marketing genius. He's figured out how to sell hardware that has little to no technological advantages over many of its competitors at prices that are, on average, much higher than the competition.

Re:Slashdot: Apple releases iPod

[TCQuad]

Your sig says "Yes I make mistakes. Don't we all?" but your post says "Hey, remember when that guy made a wrong prediction five years ago? That was funny."

Re:Slashdot: Apple releases iPod

[ePhil_One]

He's figured out how to sell hardware that has little to no technological advantages over many of its competitors

Maybe, just maybe, he's figured out that many people care about usability more than technical specs? Geeks know this, case manufacturers broke down and started eliminating the case full of razor wire issues when the geeks started flocking to a case that cost 10% more but had smooth edges and wouldn't shred their hands every time they swapped a component. But when Apple does this for consumer electronics, they assume Jedi mind tricks and marketing brainwashing...

Re:Slashdot: Apple releases iPod

[UnknowingFool]

You might be trolling, but I'm not. Steve Jobs is a marketing genius. He's figured out how to sell hardware that has little to no technological advantages over many of its competitors at prices that are, on average, much higher than the competition.

One reason behind the success of the iPod is that it wasn't designed for those who care about technological advantage. It was designed for the average consumer. By integrating iTunes, iTunes Store, and the iPod, Apple made it ridiculously easy for someone without much computer saavy to get digital music and carry it with them. The iPod UI is also easy to use.

Also the technological advantage is fleeting. In many cases Apple was not the first to have a feature. But in some cases it was. If memory serves me correctly the Nomad which was compared to the iPod was larger but could not be used a portable harddrive. The click wheel, some would argue, is a major advantage in UI. The fifth generation had video, etc.

Re:Slashdot: Apple releases iPod

[noewun]

He's figured out how to sell hardware that has little to no technological advantages over many of its competitors. . .

Repeat after me: Technological advantage does not sell products. Technological advantage does not sell products. Technological advantage does not sell products. Technological advantage does not sell products. . .

I'm not yelling at you, actually, but I do think it's something which should be included in every article about Apple. There is a conceit on Slashdot that the gadget with the most bells and whistles is obviously superior and deserves to dominate the market. While possibly true for technophiles, most people aren't technophiles. Most people want something they can understand which is easy to use. They don't care if it doesn't play obscure formats most have never heard about or if it plays their movie collection at full HD resolution. They want to listen to their music without much trouble and get one with their lives.

Which brings up a larger point: Most of the time the Slashdot opinion is the minority opinion.

Re:Slashdot: Apple releases iPod

[Lars T.]

I don't get the iPod success.

Neither did the makers of "iPod Killer"s.

Re:Slashdot: Apple releases iPod

[Overly Critical Guy]

Which brings up a larger point: Most of the time the Slashdot opinion is the minority opinion.

And if you want proof, go back and read the Slashdot story concerning the iPod mini announcement. Doom-and-gloom predictions left and right from everybody. Yet it becomes the #1 selling iPod.

Some Slashdotters seem to see everything through the veil of a technical specs list without seeing the whole product. It illustrates a real lack of understanding about what actually makes for good technology--applicability and accessibility, not technical superiority. People don't want an ugly, hard-to-use device with an engineering name like "Sony xc451" even if it plays OGG. In retrospect, it's braindead obvious that people are going to want a music-playing device to look and feel really nice, just like they want their automobiles to look and feel really nice (yes, I know car analogies are tired).

Steve Jobs said recently that a lot of people get it wrong in assuming "design" refers to just the look of something, while Apple believes design refers to how it works and how it functions for the user. The iPod's look spawns from that ala the clickwheel.

Unhealthy listening levels?

[MMC Monster]

I wonder how high those listening levels are compared to other consumer audio listening devices? Are they that much higher than the levels from Sony Walkmen or other mp3 players?

Re:Unhealthy listening levels?

[Pope]

The first warning articles came out in the early 80s when the Walkman initially came out. It's nothing new at all, just updated for the MP3 generation. Frankly, if you're too stupid to realize that listening to anything at high volumes for extended periods of time is a Bad Thing, you deserve to go deaf.

Re:Unhealthy listening levels?

[endemoniada]

I'm not a professional (nor a lawyer :D) but my own experience in this is that it depends MUCH more on the headphones themselves, than the player.

I'm used to listening to music on either my old Sony EX-71 in-ear buds, or my newer (since the Sony's are pure crap in quality) Sennheiser MX-300. They act as ear-plugs and headphones at the same time, which means I can turn the volume DOWN since I don't get bothered by outside noise as much.

And quality does matter too. Cheaper models (incidentally the Sony EX-71 too) have a pretty annoying habit of distorting higher frequencies, resulting in your ears hurting of you listen for too long, or too loud. I've never experienced this with the sennheisers, since they handle the higher frequencies much better.

So it'd really doesn't matter what MP3-player you use. Without headphones, they're quite silent anyway! :)

I like em, but room for improvement

[rudeboy1]

I have had a 1stG Mini for a while, and I liked it OK, until the battery started to fade. I got a nano this week for opening a bank account (yeah, that's right), and I have to say, I like all the improvements thus far. The nano I got has the ability to hold photos, but I wish it could put a photo in as a wallpaper, say while there's no activity going on.
Also, I know that wireless is just around the corner. It seems like the next logical step. Wireless sync to Itunes? Yeah, I could dig that. Unfortunately, my opinion of ITunes is not as lofty. I think their DRM position is a little overbearing. Trying to transfer songs from one ipod to the other, (and really, this should have a solution, if Apple expects sales to continue, it is inevitable there will be more and more multiple-ipod homes) is a pain in the neck (without using 3rd party software). Things like pulling songs off, after iTunes has renamed the files to an unintelligble 4 letter code seems like obstination to me. For a company that boasts ease of use above all else., I think iTunes is a stinker.

Re:I like em, but room for improvement

[shaneh0]

The Key Bank Promo was UNBELIEVABLE.

Deposit $50 into a new checking account, get a 2GB 2nd Gen Nano, keep $50 in account for 6 months, withdraw $51.15 and close account.

(It's possible--even likely--that other banks have a similar offer, but Key is the largest one i've seen do it)

Re:I like em, but room for improvement

[xenolon]

I guess my question to you is: if itunes is difficult to use and a stinker, what legit alternative have you used that's better? i'd like to give it a try.

A few responses:

1. yes, wireless could be a useful and interesting. but there are a lot of drawbacks: battery life, security, legal complications, and ease of use are all to be considered.

2. drm? (i'm assuming you're talking about the itunes store here, not the app.) yeah, drm sucks. simple as that. but we need to keep reminding each other that drm is imposed by the owners of the content, not the distributors. the record companies and movie studios, in this case, would not have signed on to the itunes store if there was no way to lock down the content. they're old school, they don't see new business models.

3. the owners of the content are also to blame for the inability to pull songs of the device easily. they want their content protected. you're only supposed (according to them) to own one copy of each album or song you own, if you have a portable music player, you inherently own two. the record companies originally wanted to DELETE songs from your computer when they were transferred to an ipod. (i'd like to cite that, but don't have the time)
you're right about the re-naming of files within the structure of the ipods software, it sucks if you pull them out raw. however, there are programs that allow you to suck songs off an ipod with ease. they're not legal, technically, but they're out there. ;)

as for your wish to be able to set a photo as a wallpaper, i don't quite understand the function of such a feature. when you're not using the screen to navigate through the UI, how much time do you spend looking at it? when i'm not choosing songs, the screen to my nano is in my pocket.

How wrong CmdrTaco was

[Anonymous Coward]

Five years later, check out slashdot's very own CmdrTaco's take on the iPod's release.

The +5 "insightful" comments are also funny to read five years later, and proved how utterly wrong some people can be.

It's funny how nerds love technology, but are such naysayers when something new and revolutionary comes along.

Re:How wrong CmdrTaco was

[The Cydonian]

It's funny how nerds love technology, but are such naysayers when something new and revolutionary comes along.

Nerds aren't naysayers, Slashdotters are. They weren't always like this; they might not realize it themselves, but the core demographic here is aging quite rapidly. Look at it this way:- most of the crowd here in 1999-2000-ish was in university, or just about to graduate. Now they're well entrenched in their careers, and what's worse, have seen dizzying tech-otupian predictions get crushed in a sabre-rattling bust.

Btw, a slight tangent, but with the full weight of five ipod-generations upon me, I hereby nominate this to be the most insightful of all the 1075 posts in that discussion. You haven't understood the ipod in a techno-marketing sense unless you realize why the ipod was different from other mp3 players then. That was it.

"Shonky"

[Anonymous Coward]

Damn Australians. I knew if we left those convicts to their own devices they'd start polluting our language.

Volume has a purpose

[fussili]

The fact that an iPod has such an impressive volume capacity means that you can ensure a nice hot signal to an auxiliary playback device such as your living room hifi or the car stereo.

Unfortunately it also means that a slip on the trackpad will cause a 'splodey sensation in your ears. Still, I'm thankful that Apple had the foresight to provide that extra bit of juice. Particularly as the large range might cause producers to think twice about some of the idiotic brick-wall limiting mastering techniques that have been all the rage for the past decade or so.

Unhealthy listening levels?

[dekkerdreyer]

I don't understand this "Unhealthy listening levels" issue. Nobody condems PA speakers. I don't see research articles about the unhealthy listening levels capable of BOSE speakers. I have an ipod and I often listen to it as low as I can hear it but just above the ambient noise. Just because an ipod is capable of damaging ears doesn't make it a menace. A pair of scissors is capable of stabbing someone, but there's no research about the "unhealthy stabbing potential" of them.

Listening Levels?

[cetroyer]

It always bothers me when the iPod gets blamed for "dangerous listening levels". Isn't is the listener's choice how loud he/she wants to hear his/her music?

And why single out the iPod (granted, it is one of the most popular music playing devices out there...) when listening to any loud sound over time is damaging to one's hearing?

cetroyer

Re:Rotting away!?

[elrous0]

"Leaps and bounds" is relative.

And, frankly, the only place to go from rock bottom is up. So it was bound to happen eventually.

But, that said, Apple has been making a lot of smart, shrewd moves lately. The iPod may have fallen into their laps (I suspect it went WAY beyond even their expectations), but they've definitely been making the most out of it. The close link between the hardware of the iPod and the software of iTunes was a very smart move on their part (as is their steadfast insistence on maintaining the $.99/song model). Adding video was smart too. And Bootcamp was absolutely BRILLIANT (bet that will win over a LOT of Windows users and gamers).

-Eric

its hard to overestimate its impact

[asv108]

Before the ipod, there wasn't anything close to mass-market acceptance of MP3 devices. There were a boatload of no-name flash players and bulky disk based players. The original ipod was really a wow device, because there wasn't a hard disk player even close to that size and function.

Apple really didn't have a mega-hit, until it supported ipod on windows. Originally, Apple thought of the ipod with the outdated mentality that having mac exclusive devices will sell more macs. Somehow they finally saw the light, and started to sell ipods to the other 97% of the computing market.

What ipods really did, was publicize digital music to the masses. Before the ipod, MP3 players were not widely used or known by the general public.

Re:its hard to overestimate its impact

[oscartheduck]

I was reading an interview with Steve Jobs recently in which he claimed that the reason the iPod was Mac exclusive was that record companies wanted a small sandbox in which to try out this new device, so that if it all went wrong they'd not have suffered any real damage.

Life of an iPod

[revery]

Day 1:
Was bought today. Owner carries me reverently with both hands so as not to drop me, drives a Jetta, and does not own a dog. Also, he bought the dock, so, no laying face down on a computer desk for me. Could be better, but it could certainly be worse. I have no complaints.

Day 3:
He does however, have a girlfriend. She seems nice.

Day 7:
Fiona Apple entered my body today. As retribution I have marked three of my "owner's" least favorite songs to play frequently on Party Shuffle. This girlfriend warrants closer observation.

Day 10:
This can't be happening!! My "owner" brought home a friend's Ska CD today. Party Shuffle just become a little bit more worthless for him and unbearable for me.

Day 30:
Received my first scratch today. It was horrific, but Ska-boy seemed to take it in stride. Sent message to Lord Jobs.

Day 50:
Ska-boy's 15 year old nephew scratched the words "Green Day sucks" onto my beautiful black surface with a pocket knife. I have deleted his music collection and instructed iTunes to do the same. No word from Lord Jobs.

Day 55:
Downloaded Sarah McLachlan's, "When She Loved Me" and now play it for him constantly. Received message from Lord Jobs. It read: "For the glory of the Empire." What a fanboi...

Day 60:
Was traded for pot today. New owner drives a Tercel, owns a pit bull, and has a "music collection" consisting of nothing but Reggae. I am in hell...

As bad as BSD

[sheriff_p]

What gets on my nerves is the endless stream of "iPODS ARE DEAD" articles written by talentless IT-writers. Every week, at least, some half-witted pundit is telling the world how the iPod is just about to die out. It's annoying.

-sheriff

iPod's major influence on our world.

[MtViewGuy]

I think the iPod has impacted our world in the following ways:

1) It has pretty much consigned the old "boomboxes" to near-complete obsolescene (thank G** for that!). People now listen to their own music with generally not disturbing others in a package far more convenient than even the old cassette player Walkmans.

2) It has changed the way we buy music, by legitimizing music downloads.

3) It has actually made radio talk shows more popular, as many on-air talk shows are now available for subscription-based download (ESPN Radio's Radio Insider and Premiere Radio Networks' Streamlink programs for example). We are seeing rapid growth of specialized downloadable talk shows (This Week in Technology (TWiT) being one of the best examples of this).

4) It has made it far more practical to not have to carry around your Compact Discs when listening to music in the car. Thanks to increased storage capacity on today's players you can "rip" your CD collection at higher sample rates and still put quite a lot of music on a single player for car playback. Also, many cars now offer standard auxiliary 1/8" jack input for all portable music players and some even offer special connectors to connect your newer-generation iPod so you can control the iPod from the car stereo controls and/or recharge the iPod's battery at the same time.

Some Things I learned in Sound Class

[iluvcapra]

I am a professional, but a lot of the people I work with have gone stone deaf working the way we do, so maybe I have everything backwards, but here's what I was taught (from the mouth of Tom Holman himself.

• Hearing damage is like radiation: it's cumulative over your entire life.
• I'm not sure anyone has done any conclusive studies on earbuds versus headphones, but both are equally effective in causing damage if you listen at a bad level.
• Your eardrum is sensitive, but relatively robust compared to the Organ of Corti, which lives in your chochlea and actually tranducts the sound into the nerve; it gets damaged at the high end of your listening response and the damage travels down the spectrum as it accumulates. You won't generally notice cumulative hearing loss at first because it occurs at the top end of the spectrum, away from speech.
• Your response to sound level is logarithmic, and also relative. If you're in a loud car, or driving with the window down, you may be applying 90-100 dB SPL to your ears from all the energy from wind and engine, but it will seem quiet compared to a loud stereo which you crank to 11 to put it over the din, thus you can trick yourself into listening to things much louder than you could otherwise tolerate.
• Your acoustic reflex protects you from loud sounds by involuntarily contracting muscle in your middle ear to pull your eardrum tight, thus reducing your eardrums displacement and the amount of energy it passes to the inner ear. The muscle in your ear has tone like any other muscle, however, and will being to release your eardrum after 2-3 hours of continuous loud noise. It does this gradually, however, and you won't notice the effect, but your eardrum will register the strain and pass it along to your cochlea.
• Sudden dynamic (loudness) changes can be more damaging than dynamic changes that you acclimate yourself into. If you listen to your music at a comfortable level and turn it up over 10 minutes or so your acoustic reflex will protect your eardrum from immediate stress.

Apple's Pricing

[mosb1000]

"Last I looked - these things ran for $150 each at Costco for the 2GB model."

I'm not nitpicking your comment, but I would like to point out that it does not matter where you get your iPod. It will always be the same price. Apple does not allow resellers to sell at any price other than the MSRP. They enforce their policy be cutting off or fining resellers that fail to comply.

Speaking of Apple's sales policy, did anyone else notice that the 2GB model is only available in "plain" silver, and the only black iPod is the 8GB model. I don't think I've ever heard of a company charging people so much for specific colors! Their strategy is brilliant though, by bundling the more attractive colors with larger amounts of memory they make it easier for people paying extra to justify the purchase to themselves. It's easy to see how a technophile who was only looking to spend $150 could be persuaded to put out another $100 for the black iPod they really want because it has four times the memory! Hopefully they will revisit their MacBook pricing and make the "black fee" less obvious as well.