Happy Birthday to the iPod
It’s 5 years since Apple introduced the iPod. I still remember sitting in my office at ATS/Vertex in Cleveland, checking the net to find out what the promised ‘Special’ announcement was all about and being disapointed on finding out that all the hype was about a Mac-compatible MP3 player for $399 with a 5GB hard drive that put “1,000 songs in your pocket.” The rumours on the net were positive that Apple was going to introduce the ‘Next Generation’, ‘Ground-breaking’ PDA. Needless to say, the reactions on the net were uniformly bad.
Over the next few months reports started trickling in about how great the iPod was. Soon the price for the original 5GB model was reduced to $299 while a new 10GB model was brought in at the $399 price point.
A little later, I managed to snag a refurbished unit for $199. I too got a chance to see what all buzz was about. I was hooked. Those days I was still a windows user and I had to purchase additional third party software to use it. Words could not describe how great this device was. Like most Apple products, it had to be used to be appreciated. The iPod was my constant companion till I lost it last year.
It’s funny to look back at some of the comments in various forums on how crazy and out of touch with reality Apple was if they thought people would spend so much money on an MP3 player. There were also other critics pointing our that there were ‘Better’ models that were cheaper from other manufacturers.
All these arguments were repeated when the iPod mini was introduced in 2004, with a 4GB hard drive, for $249, while the regular sized 15GB iPod was only $50 more at $299. Critics uniformly said that it’d be a flop since most people would opt to pay $50 and get 3 times the capacity. The iPod mini went on to become the most popular model before it was replaced by the iPod nano
Fast-forward to the present. Apple is the undisputed leader in the Personal Music Player (PMP) space. They’ve sold more that 67 million device to date. The iPod has brought buzz back to the company driving stock prices to fantastic heights. Apple now has $10 Billion in cash reserves.
As for me, I now have a 5th generation black iPod which can also play video. I am also almost exclusively a Mac user.
Here are some links looking back on the 5 years of the iPod:
BusnessWeek: The Apple iPod Turns Five
CBS News: iPod Turning 5: ‘The Perfect Thing’
Playlist: Analysis: How the iPod changed Apple’s fortunes
Newsweek: Q&A: Jobs on iPod’s Cultural Impact
Wired News: Straight Dope on the IPod’s Birth
Negative views expressed at the time of launch, 5 years ago:
Apple’s New Thing - Mac Forums
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