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A Brief History of the iPod 296

Posted by michael from the sing-me-a-song dept.
antdude writes "MacSlash mentioned MLAgazine's article on a brief history of the iPod. It all started on October 23, 2001 with the release of one of the most important products from Apple in its history."
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A Brief History of the iPod More

A Brief History of the iPod

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  • I remember the launch... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by nordicfrost ( 118437 ) * on Thursday November 25, 2004 @10:55AM (#10917912)
    I also talked with a Mac-enthusiatic buddy of mine, and he hated it. I don't know why, but he thought it would bring down Apple another notch on the finance scale. Guess he was wrong. Along with some that said "no wireless. Lame."

    I find it the most indispensable tool in my life. Backup, file transport, music and calendar. With a huge harddrive.

    • Re:I remember the launch... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Mr_Silver ( 213637 ) on Thursday November 25, 2004 @11:16AM (#10918029)
      I also talked with a Mac-enthusiatic buddy of mine, and he hated it. I don't know why, but he thought it would bring down Apple another notch on the finance scale. Guess he was wrong. Along with some that said "no wireless. Lame."

      That would be Taco then [slashdot.org].

      Look how well Creative are doing too. From being the first with a HD based MP3 device to playing catch up. Oh and trying to make their products look as similar as possible to Apple's.

      Probably not quite the direction they were hoping for.

      • It's funny to read that old thread, all the people prediciting how it wouldn't succeed.

        Good thing nobody takes business advice from Slashdot.

        • I'm sure just as many "business" people at Apple and elsewhere were saying the same thing. That's why every time a product is released and marketed, there is great risk taken because no one can predict how it will do. If it were sureshot, everyone would be in business.
    • Until i get a portable mp3/aac/wma/new codec player that plays ripped mix cd's *properly* i'm not interested. I want my player to show me the track title AND to seamlessly go into the next track as intended by the artist. iPods only do this by ripping the cd as a whole track... i'm told this is due to a fault in mp3's/aac. Give me a player that does this and i'm in. Don't care if it's a new format as i'm ripping cd's i own or can borrow. mind you winamp must have a plugin to play this new uber-format.

  • Don't forget the wonderful review at /. (Score:5, Funny)

    by kentheman ( 24620 ) on Thursday November 25, 2004 @10:56AM (#10917921) Homepage
    From here [slashdot.org]:
    No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.
    Well, Apple did it. Again.
    • It is kind of funny that nearly all of the +5 moderated posts in that story were positive.

      I will note that I knew Apple fans that wouldn't even consider it.
      • I will note that I knew Apple fans that wouldn't even consider it.

        That must have been me. I hated it. I had been hoping for a new Newton, or a smartphone - you know, they had announced "a groundbreaking device".

        When I saw that pseudo documentary where Moby and Seal had nothing but praise, my attitude shifted from "I hate it" to "I am disappointed".

        A couple of weeks later I happend to hold the iPod in my hand and turn that scroll wheel: clickclickclickclick.

        I wanted one. Badly.

    • Year ? (Score:2, Insightful)

      by leonbloy ( 812294 )
      I really hate to having to guess (from the url) the year of an old post. Please, show the year in the post date. It's just 4 chars, man! Am I missing something ?

    • Favorite Comment from the Previous Article (Score:5, Funny)

      by Seoulstriker ( 748895 ) on Thursday November 25, 2004 @05:44PM (#10920414)
      Raise your hand if you have iTunes ...

      Raise your hand if you have a FireWire port ...

      Raise your hand if you have both ...

      Raise your hand if you have $400 to spend on a cute Apple device ...

      There is Apple's market. Pretty slim, eh? I don't see many sales in the future of iPod.

      ~LoudMusic

      October 23rd, 2001. Priceless. :-D
    • Can anyone please explain what is wrong in that comment? While iPod turned out to be a huge success due to marketing, I don't think Apple addressed those issues (wireless support and more space than competing products).

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Thursday November 25, 2004 @10:58AM (#10917931)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Apple's core... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by mac666er ( 591442 ) on Thursday November 25, 2004 @11:00AM (#10917940)

    Since its inception, Apple has always been willing to gamble more with new products than most other companies

    Granted, they flopped with the Newton... but they came out with the mac, the powerbook, peer2peer file sharing out of the box, the trackpad, the powerbook duo, speech recognition integrated on the OS on the 90's, quicktime, and the list goes on... (I would like to give them the mouse and the interface, but as with everything they also have a dark side)

    It is good to see they are ripping the benefits of believing in something completely new... ( As they believed in a portable media player by some bogus guy who was rejected by other companies)

    Kudos to Apple

    • I'd have to disagree.

      apple might seem willing to try new ideas.. if you had your eyes blindfolded to other companies. against viewing what other companies have been doing, apple hasn't been that much willing to jump into new territories or trying new areas just for the sake of trying.

      (..and ipod was not the first hd mp3 player either)

    • Re:Apple's core... (Score:2, Interesting)

      by fermion ( 181285 )
      Apple's big thing is the packaging of the hardware and software. It tends to be straightforward with much less game playing than is typical. This allows some really cool things to happen really easily. the innovation is in the access as much as the technology.

      On the matter of speech, not speech recognition, we have talking moose. if you haven't hear of it, look it up. This, and the trivial way that system level icons could be replaced, kind of a proto-skinning, made that mac a much more personal expe

  • Guarantee (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 25, 2004 @11:02AM (#10917951)
    Guaranteed: At least a dozen times prior to Apple releasing the iPod, large technology company middle managers refused to approve designs for competing devices, claiming with absolute certainty that no market existed for portable digital music players.

    As those ass-molded-to-chair managers know, it's always easier to be a skeptic. The numbers of jobs and revenue lost to those WRONG decisions must be staggering.

  • A bit unnecessary, no? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Nosf3ratu ( 702029 ) <Nosf3ratu.sbcglobal@net> on Thursday November 25, 2004 @11:05AM (#10917963)
    Do we really need a "history of ..." story for something that's been around for just a couple years?

    Here's a brief history of the iPod:

    First, Apple designed the iPod. One day an engineer came in succinctly blitzed and designed the horrible "I-ain't-seen-this-shit-since-Intellivision" circle navigation wheel thingy. The hippie fruits at Apple all applauded.

    Then they bought usage rights to some second-rate cheap ass songs that never got played on the radio anyway, and used them to promote the thing. Said no-name bands became more famous because of the constant never-ending barrage of commercials. "Honey, if I do say so myself, this Black Eyed Peas song is rather good! I absolutely hated it the first 48,000 times I heard it but now it's starting to grow on me!"

    Then Apple deployed their proven strategy of making the device look better than it actually performs, thereby luring thoughtless dimwits and college freshmen with enormous piles of high interest credit cards that they somehow "needed" one for Christmas.

    Then when people realized that the music they were downloading for free was somehow supporting terrorism, and they were probably going to be castrated in town square, they needed another method to fill up the bottomless hole that is the iPod (seriously, who the hell needs to have that many gigs of mp3s with them at all times?). But wait, Apple was here with a solution! You can download the songs for a low low price, and it's legal! Oh...and the artists still get fucked! Yay! The RIAA can rest easy. iTunes is here.

    And a legend was born.

    • Re:A bit unnecessary, no? (Score:5, Funny)

      by dJOEK ( 66178 ) on Thursday November 25, 2004 @11:23AM (#10918069)
      So you're too poor to buy one?
    • that never got played on the radio anyway

      Yeah, but that's a good thing these days.

      And the control wheel is frickin genius. It's perfect for the one dimensional navigation of the iPod. The Intellivision was a cheap mushy disc totally unsuited to the two dimensional control of a game system.

    • Then when people realized that the music they were downloading for free was somehow supporting terrorism

      I seriously hope you're being sarcastic. I don't see how anything free can be labeled "supporting terrorism".. It may be circumventing copyright, or allowing poor people to use computers, but how does that lead to supporting terrorism?

      In my mind the whole terrorism schtick, be it the US "seeking" out terrorists or the terrorists attacking, is all in an effort to reduce our freedoms.

  • How do you rate important? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by joeykiller ( 119489 ) on Thursday November 25, 2004 @11:07AM (#10917975) Journal
    I know this is off topic, but I see they call the iPod one of the most important products in Apple history. How does one value their individual products, and how would a list of importantness lokk like? Like this?

    1. Apple I for starting the whole thing?
    2. Apple II for making Apple a business?
    3. Macintosh for paving the way to the future?
    4. iMac for saving the company?
    5. iPod for attracting buyers outside of the crowd of believers?

    Can Steve Jobs be called a "product" these days, and thus earn a place on the top 5?

  • A great history... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by jmcmunn ( 307798 )

    I didn't know a lot about the history of the iPod, so this was quite interesting to me. I really only started paying attention to the iPod when it was compatible with the PC.

    But it would be more interesting to me to see an entire history of the Mp3 player...starting with the first little 32MB ones or whatever came out first, and going right up to the 80GB+ ones we have today. I remember being so excited when I got my first Rio Mp3 flash player. It had 64mb built in, and this was just amazing to me. I l
    • i agee with you there, i found it interesting too although the links to the slashdot story from 2001 were funnier.

      i remember the first mp3 player i bought, about 150 GBP for 32 MB of storage and it was about the same size as an ipod. If i encoded the songs at 64kbps i could just about squeeze 2 albums on! it was magic! i think either the decoding hardware was too poor for me to notice the low quality or i was delusion from being way cooler than the other kids at the time!
    • Anyone have any links to articles that might have a more broad history of the MP3 player in general?

      Try this:

      http://www.rockbox.org/playerhistory/ [rockbox.org]

  • it's in the new MoMA... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by mojoNYC ( 595906 ) on Thursday November 25, 2004 @11:08AM (#10917981) Homepage
    my wife and I (both iPod and Mac owners) attended the opening of the new Museum of Modern Art here in NYC, and were happy to see that the original iPod (along with a G4 iBook) made it into the museum's design collection, next to other icons of product design.

    didn't see any Rios or Dell laptops, though--go figure;>

  • Design (Score:5, Informative)

    by Mr_Silver ( 213637 ) on Thursday November 25, 2004 @11:09AM (#10917993)
    One of the key points which I believe made the iPod sell well is that it appeals to women. Several in the office have seen the alternative "iPod killers" and every single one of them have commented about how ugly it is. One key quote was "if you asked for an ipod and you got that, you'd be disappointed".

    I find it interesting that every "iPod killer" attempts to add more features and make it cheaper. Unfortunately this has the side effect of it having a horrible design or uses cheap materials which makes it feel horrible to handle.

    Personally I believe that if something looks and feels good, then people will buy it. As soon as a company accepts that there are people who are perfectly happy to pay more for something that looks and feels good, then they might spend a little more on the hardware and less on trying to get it's sales price as low as possible.

    I fear that at the moment the only real competitor to Apple was Sony, but then they dropped the ball with a limited hard drive (no 40 gig option?) and the stupid requirement to convert to ATRAC. Creative have never produced a product that remotely looks like it's worth the money that was paid for it and iRiver (whilst being technically very good) needs to seriously review some of their design choices (ruggidised black and a stubbly joypad doesn't appeal to many and definately not to women).

    Of course, everyones opinion is different. I know people who think the Creative one is beautiful and the Apple one horrible. But the market has clearly shown that they are in the minority.

    More style, more class, less about the price point and someone could actually make it vaiguley close to having an "iPod killer" on their hands.

    • You forgot to mention Rio and their great portable players. I think the Carbon is every bit as sexy as an iPod.
      • Look, I understand that opinions are neither right nor wrong and that everybody's entitled to one ...but come on, man. Have you ever actually seen an iPod? An iPod is simple and elegant. A Rio Carbon looks like a prop from a bad 1970s-era science fiction TV show.

        Opinions are neither right nor wrong ...but sometimes you just have to take a step back and re-evaluate. You know?

        • Re:Design (Score:3, Insightful)

          by DaveCBio ( 659840 )
          I've seen and used an iPod and while I think it's pretty cool it's still overrated and overpriced like most Apple products. Apple is 50% tech and 50% hype.

    • Re:Design (Score:3, Informative)

      by Jeff DeMaagd ( 2015 )
      FWIW, Sony actually did relent on the ATRAC conversion for its hard drive and flash players. I'm not sure if that hard drive player was fixed. The 20GB is smaller than Apple's 20GB but costs $50 more and still has a dubious interface.

      Sony's CD and DVD players had been using MP3 for a while.

      I'm considering a 20GB iPod right now, and won't consider Sony for this task. The 40GB iPod isn't necessary and IMO too thick anyway. I currently only have a 10GB music collection + 1GB software files. It's taken

    • Re:Design (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Chundra ( 189402 )
      No, the market has clearly shown that people, like crows, covet shiny things. It has nothing to do with "style", or "class".

    • Re:Design (Score:2, Funny)

      by stevey ( 64018 )
      (ruggidised black and a stubbly joypad doesn't appeal to many and definately not to women).

      I can think of many women who'd like a rugged black joystick ..

      Perhaps you just move in different circles.

  • Uh, no. (Score:5, Informative)

    by GeorgeH ( 5469 ) on Thursday November 25, 2004 @11:11AM (#10918001) Homepage Journal
    "It all started on October 23, 2001 with the release of one of the most important products from Apple in its history."

    Uh, no. It started when Tony Fadell had the idea of creating a digital music player and tying it to an online music store a few years before the iPod came out. Inside Look at Birth of the iPod [wired.com] on Wired News covers the stuff that happened before the iPod came out.
    • There are a few errors. The U2 SE doesn't include the "digital boxed set"

      Real Networks DID approach Apple to licence Fairplay. Apple refused. Then they released their own workaround.

      Another note that I didn't think of until now, the Newsweek with Jobs on the cover looks kind of like the guy in Sling Blade with an iPod.

  • It'll never catch on (Score:5, Funny)

    by payndz ( 589033 ) on Thursday November 25, 2004 @11:51AM (#10918217)
    Oh, wait...

  • Small Objects of Desire (Score:5, Insightful)

    by iBod ( 534920 ) on Thursday November 25, 2004 @12:01PM (#10918277)
    It's been a long, long time since I've been enticed by any piece of consumer electronics.
    I'm not a gadget freak anymore, really.

    But dammit! Apple have created an object of sheer desirability in the iPod - and especially in the iPod mini.

    Despite my (iBod) nickname, It's been many years since I've owned an Apple product (the last was the ill-fated Newton).

    I think Apple really understand which buttons to press to get hip, design-aware customers longing for their products (not that I include myself in that demograph). When they've got the trendsetters, the rest will follow.

    Credit and kudos where it's due. Apple have a killer product that is even making iPod buyers switch from PCs to Macs, allegedly.

    IMHO there will be no 'iPod killer' because nobody understands the intended market for these devices better than Apple.

    No self-respecting kid will thank you for getting him/her a 'no-name' MP3 player this Christmas instead of an iPod.
    • No self-respecting kid will thank you for getting him/her a 'no-name' MP3 player this Christmas instead of an iPod.

      Well, maybe just the ones that go by features they need, instead of what will impress the kewl kids at school the most.
      • Yeah, and how many kids need features that aren't in the iPod? Contrary to popular belief on /., most people in the country don't really care about encoding to Ogg or FLAC, or having some niche feature that very few people ever use. The iPod works for most people (including myself) that have their MP3s and AACs and just want to listen to their music that they already have on iTunes. What other features could the average kid possibly need?

  • MacSlash (Score:4, Funny)

    by JaJ_D ( 652372 ) on Thursday November 25, 2004 @12:05PM (#10918293)
    ...sounds like a scottish pyschopath!

    :-]

    Jaj

  • One of the most important? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by solistus ( 556078 ) on Thursday November 25, 2004 @12:34PM (#10918435) Homepage
    Err.... I own an iPod, I think it's great, and I realise that it's made Apple a lot of money, but is sticking a nice GUI and interface on a mini HDD and packaging it nicely really anywhere close to as "important" as, say, the first personal computer? No? What about the first GUI for a consumer OS? No again? Or, if we're going to talk in terms of cash cows, how about the iMac, which actually saved Apple? If the company was on its last financial legs before the iPod's debut, I could see calling it one of their most important releases, but making a profitable company more profitable by taking exiting ideas and technology and simply doing them better than anyone else, while significant, can't be compared to innovations that changed the world forever à la MacOS or Apple I.

    In conclusion, profitable =/= important
    • In 20 years time, I'll bet people will be saying 'iPod' when they mean generic personal, life-style-enhancing, thingummy.

    • Re:One of the most important? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by the pickle ( 261584 ) on Thursday November 25, 2004 @08:31PM (#10921067) Homepage
      Important to Apple, or important to the world?

      I submit that the iPod will be the latter, and without having RTFA, suspect this is the direction the authors were going.

      Why, you ask?

      The iPod could be the device that eventually breaks Microsoft's stranglehold on the computer industry. The important point here isn't that the iPod has been fantastically profitable to Apple. It has, but that doesn't matter. What matters is that the iPod has done more for Apple's "mind-share" than anything since the famous "1984" advertisement. The results of the recent study indicating that some 13% of iPod customers are already (or are planning to become) Macintosh owners are nothing less than spectacular. If Apple can play this advantage into greater Macintosh market share -- even as little as 10-15 percent, compared to less than five percent right now -- several things will happen:

      1) You can get away with excluding two or three percent of your user base. You cannot get away with excluding ten percent of it. This will force companies to design Web sites that work on ALL computers, not just the latest Windows box.

      2) Two to three percent of people can be dismissed as the lunatic fringe. It's a lot harder to dismiss ten percent as the lunatic fringe. Thus, the Macintosh becomes more of a mainstream platform, and PHBs start realising that there's an alternative to Windows for the corporate world.

      3) In conjunction with #1, software developers now have a much larger potential market, encouraging them to bring quality products to the Macintosh where none previously existed. The lack of specialty software is the ONLY thing keeping a large number of my friends from switching to a Macintosh.

      Should this come to pass, it's unlikely that history will remember the iPod as the catalyst, mostly because the Macintosh and Apple I were directly significant to the computer industry, whereas the iPod itself isn't a particularly revolutionary device. Of course, history hasn't remembered a lot of things as they should have been.

      p

  • You know what, for once, I've RTFA (Score:3, Informative)

    by RasputinAXP ( 12807 ) on Thursday November 25, 2004 @12:55PM (#10918550) Homepage Journal
    and the TFA is a POS.
  • First there was the guitar or maybe the ukelele, so many vowels - so few strings. Actually in some places there was also the banjo. OK, so first there were instruments and you'd strum a little song and be all up-ons with the ladies.

    This was superseded by the record player. Not so good - how to get the ladies to visit, doesn't work by the campfire without a long extension lead. Then the jukebox - brilliant, put the record player where the ladies is.

    Then the Walkman, no ladies, the smaller Walkman, still no

  • And here are the precursors (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Björn Stenberg ( 32494 ) on Thursday November 25, 2004 @06:48PM (#10920690) Homepage
    Since so many people are confused/misled about who invented what regarding harddisk mp3 players, I created this simple history page:

    http://www.rockbox.org/playerhistory/ [rockbox.org]

    It may surprise some people to see that the iPod was announced a full two years after the first harddisk-based mp3 player.

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