A lucky set of circumstances led to the iPod dominating the digital audio player market: bold marketing, a smaller HDD form factor, high-speed FireWire connection, and a great integration story on Macs.
The Windows world at the time was a big mess of nonstandard cabling, messy drivers, sketchy quasi-shareware applications vying for presence on your desktop, while the Apple world was plug-and-play over a high-speed bus that came standard, and the music management experience was top-notch. And while there was some good hardware coming out of Korea to give the iPod a run for its money, the integrated Apple experience was without match.
For Windows, Apple bundled MusicMatch Jukebox at first, but then made iTunes available on Windows, which became their foothold that would later set up the iPhone for success.
By the time Microsoft caught up with WinXP and Windows Media Player, Apple had already stolen the higher end of the market, leaving WMP largely in the domain of cheap flash-based USB sticks that could only fit a subset of your songs. Then everyone pivoted to a DRM-laden storefront, making switching costs high. A later effort to refocus their first-party efforts with Zune resulted in an incompatible DRM ecosystem, and fizzled on the market.
The iPod, in many ways, foreshadowed the Apple tactic that would become famous from the later iPhone: take the state-of-the-art in a particular market, pare it down a bit, endow it with tasteful industrial design, make sure it has a strong, ideally "frustration-free" integrated environment to take part in, give it an upmarket but justifiable price, and market the heck out of it with aspirational brand advertising.
I feel like this is a rewriting of history. I knew literally a single person with a mac when the iPod came out, and they were not the first person I knew with an iPod.
My recollection of the time was that most MP3 players were based on Flash storage rather than HDDs, so I could get about 10 songs onto mine.
Macs didn't really take off as a thing until long after iPods had been mainstream for a while, so I don't think the integration was actually very important compared to the fact that there was a well known HDD-based MP3 player.
> A lucky set of circumstances led to the iPod dominating the digital audio player market: bold marketing, a smaller HDD form factor, high-speed FireWire connection, and a great integration story on Macs.
Which of these four things are lucky circumstances and not the product of smart, consumer-thoughtful, hard work on the part of various teams at Apple?
Why is it that Apple has been "lucky" in this way so many times when so many other companies could have won instead?
> Apple had already stolen the higher end of the market
Stolen? I realize this is just a turn of phrase, but I think it does reveal a strong bias that sees a market win by Apple as illegitimate.
> A lucky set of circumstances led to the iPod dominating the digital audio player market: bold marketing, a smaller HDD form factor, high-speed FireWire connection, and a great integration story on Macs... Apple bundled MusicMatch Jukebox at first, but then made iTunes available on Windows
That's a heck of a lot of "lucky circumstances" to call it "lucky circumstances" ;)
I'd say it was a lot of hard work delivering on a (rather novel at the time) idea that may or may not have worked. All that effort paid off in the end. Same goes for iPhone.
> high-speed FireWire connection, and a great integration story on Macs.
These two, at least, aren't it. The iPod only became truly successful once it had a USB connection and a Windows client. Before that point it was a total niche product.
> A lucky set of circumstances led to the iPod dominating the digital audio player market: bold marketing, a smaller HDD form factor, high-speed FireWire connection, and a great integration story on Macs.
The best thing about the iPod was its usability (the scrolling wheel). Mac integration is pretty irrelevant since almost everyone had a PC back in those days.
I had an iRiver H340 [1] back in those days (~2004 or so). It had decent hardware keys for control, and a whopping 40 GB of space (with a 2.5" HDD). iPods back then had a fraction of that. The iRiver h3x0 could play both MP3 and Ogg Vorbis. The battery would last long enough for commuting back & forth. But it didn't have such a scrolling wheel. Nor did it have any of the DRM garbage. Nor did it receive any of the marketing or hype the iPod had. You could however just download a bunch of MP3 from a.b.mp3.* or whatever and fill your device up. Back in those days, it was even legal to "download" in my country. Or you could use EAC to rip a bunch of your CDs and have it with you on the go in a more portable... "format". Oh, and it had USB OTG. You could also pimp it with unofficial open source firmware, Rockbox [2]
Quoting Cnet's review from 2005: "It's just not as out-of-the-box simple as the iPod. If this all sounds discouraging, just remember: the H340 does so much more than the iPod." and "It's noticeably thick, not to mention heavier than it looks. (In the world of gadgets, a few ounces or fractions of inches make a difference.) The overall look is utilitarian although the color screen does add some style points. We like to call the H340 the "Soviet iPod."" [3]
I'm hugely disappointed that they discontinued the shuffle. It's the best music player for workouts period. No fussing with the bluetooth pairing, just plug in headphones, clip and go.
I personally use mine for swimming. You can buy waterproofed shuffles such as this one: http://a.co/f64p74y and they work extremely well for swimming. In fact when the shuffle was discontinued I immediately bought another one as backup to my trusty waterproof shuffle that I've used for 3 years.
It's a much more expensive solution, but as far as the "best" solution, I'll take a cellular equipped Apple Watch + AirPods and a subscription to Apple Music for most workouts.
For swimming, I guess you could use something like this.
don't regular headphones not work well in the water? I thought you absolutely needed bone conduction headphones for swimming with music to be a pleasant experience
The iPod is the closest thing to an electronic device I wouldn't change that I've ever owned [1]. It wasn't perfect, but it almost was for me. I bought an extra iPod classic and shuffle when they were discontinued.
[1]: I'll qualify that I mean something with a screen and a user interface, because I once had a toaster oven that was pretty great
Man, the iPod had a great interface for quickly browsing a hierarchy of organized music. I know that people hate organizing music into hierarchies. I know that search is faster than browsing (usually). I know that curation is hard generally.
But... I listed to a wider variety of music when I could start at an entry point and browse my way in, possibly tripping on a long un-listened album along the way. Now with most search driven music subscription apps, I feel like
1. Browsing functionality is crap. I typically can't go in looking for a genre and find anything I want to listen to.
2. The search feature is a brick wall of need-to-know-what-you-want-to-listen-to.
Also, having the TV on (routed digitally to a DAC / Amp) to listen to music sucks. Most of the streaming apps for TV scream for attention visually, when I want to—surprise—listen to music.
So yeah, a small interface that I can reliably browse music from like an iPod attached to my sound system but could also be taken with me sounds lovely.
Likely not. I have an old silver shuffle (the tiny USB pen size). Didn't use it much, tried to fire it back up and the battery is toast on it.
Most electronics will have toasted batteries over time. Devices without easily replaceable batteries will have a harder re-surgence, even if they deserve one.
It's almost certain. I've fired mine up again for the first time in years because I want digital music in my bedroom, but don't want a phone in there any longer -- and the nostalgia is just as strong as it was when I got a new turntable.
> Here's a question: will the iPod have a retro comeback moment, as electro-mechanical media like vinyl records and even cassettes have had?
The iPod is a brand and not a product category. The analog, would be standalone digital portable media players having a retro-comeback, not then iPod itself having one.
> Or maybe once you cross into the digital divide, does the experience and associated nostalgia perhaps not work the same way?
Quite possible; is there any aspect of the experience with iPods or other standalone players that is lost using multifunction digital media devices like smartphones?
Digital music is digital whether it's being streamed from physical hard disk or memory. It's not comparable to vinyl, which has a distinct sound and interface compared to other methods of listening.
I still use my click wheel ipod. The UI makes finding my songs much quicker than on my phone, and it can create on-the-go playlists just by holding down the button, which Apple still hasn't figured out how to do on their phones. And finally it has a high quality DAC so music sounds better than from my phone.
Yes ! the clickwheel is too good, it has no competition in the UX dept be it with the Apple OS or the Custom aftermarket Firmware.
Still rocking a 5.5G iPod 30GB, Recently modded it with a 200GB MicroSD and it runs on the Rockbox which is Open Source and doesn't have any limit on the songs or storage that my other iPod Classc 6G 80GB has, thanks to Apple for that limit on the 6G iPod Classics, Rockbox can break that limit, But yeah you always need to boot to OF (Official Firmware) to copy tracks onto the iPod else there will be song skipping etc, Perhaps due to the third party HW chipset in between which is the SD Adapter (this is for every iPod 5G-7G with aftermarket modded HW)
And also yeah the 5.5G iPod (I think there are older iPods with this chip plus the iPhone 2G also had this/the same company's chip and 1st gen iPod Touch as well iirc) DAC chip is from Wolfson Audio which used to be great before the CL (Cirrus Logic) engulfed them & this makes it great fun to listen over my CL chip 6G, forget the phones, Apart from the Wolfson powered Voodoo modded Android phones nothing comes close to that level of detail, fun.
To people who want to mod them head over to the iFlash and get a hold of it, you'll be shocked to see how robust these things are. Plus there can be lot of inter mods that can be done like you can fit a 5.xG chipset into a 6-7G shell and vice versa - the frame can be interchanged+faceplate also goes in hand with the respective frame or need to shave a few bits off the metal frame, along with the backplate, headphone jack/hold switch flex cable plus massive battery upgrade(s) also exists - 2000mAh and up, these all are interchangeable. The Clickwheels, LCD panel aren't)
I've been thinking about replacing the hard drive and battery in mine for the past few years. The wheel-based iPods really did have the best UI for music in any device I've ever owned. If you're familiar with it, you can navigate with extraordinary ease.
The greatest innovation of the iPod was the bold move to make the earbuds white. This made the music player - usually tucked away in the pocket - a visible symbol of status and coolness. Together with a brilliant marketing campaign which made it into a must-have fashion item, and special content contracts, it made the iPod a huge success.
Technical aspects really aren't what made the iPod successful. Sure, the clickwheel was a really great idea, and it was an overall well-polished product. But other players were good too. Without the marketing, and without the breakthrough pricing of music on the iTunes Music Store (complete with iPod-ecosystem lockin via DRM), it would have gone nowhere.
In some ways the iPhone is a similar story IMO, but I guess that's even more controversial...
I bought my first (of many) iPods immediately after it was announced. Watched the keynote and got it. I can't remember any other device getting more use in my life for several years. I still have the original 5GB iPod.
Another perspective: I gave my 5 year old an old iPod Nano + some over-ear headphones, and she uses them to listen to music and kid podcasts. I much prefer this over an iPod touch, iPhone, or iPad. We're just not ready for her to have that kind of screen time.
I think there would be still quite a market for an up-to date incarnation of the iPod. Roughly in the size of the last iPod nano. There are times and activities where you can or don't want to use your iPhone and traditionally use an iPod. Especially if it came with a bit more storage and of course good Apple Music integration (e.g. be able to automatically sync your playlists to your iPod).
The Apple Watch might one day take that role, but for now it doesn't offer enough storage and its interaction is a bit more difficult due to the small size.
Sure, there's plenty of markets that Apple exits that they could still make money on. But Apple has always been a company about focus. They just can't keep all those designers and engineers focused on a dying market segment. Better to refocus them on something new.
With a very important caveat: it takes FOREVER to sync not-very-many songs with the watch. This isn't a problem if you're bringing your phone as well, but if you're going for run and don't want to or can't bring your phone, you either have to plan ahead or stick with the same ol' songs every single time you're out and about.
To be fair, I tend to stick with the same songs anyway, it makes it easy for me to always know how I'm doing with regards to my run, without having to look at the watch or wait for a mile / km update to come along, since I know when in the playlist I should be when reaching certain parts of my track. (Provided I run the same track, that is, but usually I do.)
I love my Apple Watch but I don't get the same sense of wonder and amazement that I did from my 3rd generation iPod (wedding present). And neither does anyone that I show it to (people were blown away when I scrolled through the songs I had on that iPod).
I bought a black iPod Shuffle from a physical Apple Store the day they announced its discontinuation. It’s still in its box. I don’t know what it is about the demented functionality of the thing, but they’re adorable, dependable, and tough as rocks. I’ve got probably half a dozen iPods of various kinds in working condition strewn around the place, even though I don’t use them regularly (including an iPod Video with an aftermarket SSD and fresh battery, a first generation iPod Touch from 2007, an elongated iPod Shuffle with a mirror finish, and a few incarnations of iPod Nano). I’ve got a friend that has a strip of different coloured iPod Shuffles assembled on a nylon strap (in chromatic order, no less) all linked simultaneously to a audio jack muxer, so she can select an iPod shuffle based on her mood.
There’s a lot of nostalgia involved in these things. They’re not bad devices. They could have gone on selling them for almost forever.
I think this is kind of unfortunate. I wish I could still get my hands on a huge iPod that just does music. Maybe anachronistic but for the car and other activities, I would have loved to have the massive iPods.
My classic ipod is 10+ years old, contains my entire music library (> 15000 songs/recordings) and continues to work on a daily basis. The battery seems to be operating fine and I've never encountered any disk errors. There is less than 10G available on the disk but I'm not acquiring content any more so that's acceptable. It's an example of a product that just worked. Maybe the UI could be a little tempermental at times but, ultimately, it did what it needed to do and what I asked of it. It will continue to accompany me until it goes cold and dead.
Does it have to be an iPod? Since back then countless digital, mobile audio players came to market - from expensive audiophile choices to affordable, yet worthwhile options. Sony and Fiio make decent, affordable audio players to name two examples.
I understand the deprecation of the iPod classic [0] but i don't for the life of me know why Apple still hasen't increased the iPod touch storage space to 256gb.
Yes, article is from July when Apple discontinued the iPod Nano and iPod Shuffle.
Wired (I think) sometimes pulls out old stories and puts them on their homepage along with the news, poster might not realized.
Side note, I still have one of those iPod Shuffles around somewhere. Great little device to clip on your running shorts, but it had the weirdest cable. They mapped 4 USB pins onto a TRRS connector and synced it through the headphone jack.
I miss my iPod Mini. I had it running RockBox (a uclinux distribution aimed at MP3 players), and replaced the 1.8” HDD with a compact flash card (32GB, I think?). Got a decade of use out of it.
I kind of want to go see if it’s in my cupboard still.
Then I successfully went the entire lifespan of the iPod without ever owning one. There was a time I would have been proud of that, now I don't care enough to engage in Kool-Aid references.
[+] [-] niftich|8 years ago|reply
The Windows world at the time was a big mess of nonstandard cabling, messy drivers, sketchy quasi-shareware applications vying for presence on your desktop, while the Apple world was plug-and-play over a high-speed bus that came standard, and the music management experience was top-notch. And while there was some good hardware coming out of Korea to give the iPod a run for its money, the integrated Apple experience was without match.
For Windows, Apple bundled MusicMatch Jukebox at first, but then made iTunes available on Windows, which became their foothold that would later set up the iPhone for success.
By the time Microsoft caught up with WinXP and Windows Media Player, Apple had already stolen the higher end of the market, leaving WMP largely in the domain of cheap flash-based USB sticks that could only fit a subset of your songs. Then everyone pivoted to a DRM-laden storefront, making switching costs high. A later effort to refocus their first-party efforts with Zune resulted in an incompatible DRM ecosystem, and fizzled on the market.
The iPod, in many ways, foreshadowed the Apple tactic that would become famous from the later iPhone: take the state-of-the-art in a particular market, pare it down a bit, endow it with tasteful industrial design, make sure it has a strong, ideally "frustration-free" integrated environment to take part in, give it an upmarket but justifiable price, and market the heck out of it with aspirational brand advertising.
[+] [-] Eridrus|8 years ago|reply
My recollection of the time was that most MP3 players were based on Flash storage rather than HDDs, so I could get about 10 songs onto mine.
Macs didn't really take off as a thing until long after iPods had been mainstream for a while, so I don't think the integration was actually very important compared to the fact that there was a well known HDD-based MP3 player.
[+] [-] Someone1234|8 years ago|reply
Windows XP pre-dates the iPod. Windows Media Player pre-dates the iPod by over ten years.
The whole post feels like you've re-imagined a lot of the history, certainly much of it doesn't align with my experiences and impressions at the time.
[+] [-] icebraining|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jccc|8 years ago|reply
Which of these four things are lucky circumstances and not the product of smart, consumer-thoughtful, hard work on the part of various teams at Apple?
Why is it that Apple has been "lucky" in this way so many times when so many other companies could have won instead?
> Apple had already stolen the higher end of the market
Stolen? I realize this is just a turn of phrase, but I think it does reveal a strong bias that sees a market win by Apple as illegitimate.
[+] [-] dmitriid|8 years ago|reply
That's a heck of a lot of "lucky circumstances" to call it "lucky circumstances" ;)
I'd say it was a lot of hard work delivering on a (rather novel at the time) idea that may or may not have worked. All that effort paid off in the end. Same goes for iPhone.
[+] [-] untog|8 years ago|reply
These two, at least, aren't it. The iPod only became truly successful once it had a USB connection and a Windows client. Before that point it was a total niche product.
[+] [-] Fnoord|8 years ago|reply
The best thing about the iPod was its usability (the scrolling wheel). Mac integration is pretty irrelevant since almost everyone had a PC back in those days.
I had an iRiver H340 [1] back in those days (~2004 or so). It had decent hardware keys for control, and a whopping 40 GB of space (with a 2.5" HDD). iPods back then had a fraction of that. The iRiver h3x0 could play both MP3 and Ogg Vorbis. The battery would last long enough for commuting back & forth. But it didn't have such a scrolling wheel. Nor did it have any of the DRM garbage. Nor did it receive any of the marketing or hype the iPod had. You could however just download a bunch of MP3 from a.b.mp3.* or whatever and fill your device up. Back in those days, it was even legal to "download" in my country. Or you could use EAC to rip a bunch of your CDs and have it with you on the go in a more portable... "format". Oh, and it had USB OTG. You could also pimp it with unofficial open source firmware, Rockbox [2]
Quoting Cnet's review from 2005: "It's just not as out-of-the-box simple as the iPod. If this all sounds discouraging, just remember: the H340 does so much more than the iPod." and "It's noticeably thick, not to mention heavier than it looks. (In the world of gadgets, a few ounces or fractions of inches make a difference.) The overall look is utilitarian although the color screen does add some style points. We like to call the H340 the "Soviet iPod."" [3]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iriver_H300_series
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockbox
[3] https://www.cnet.com/products/iriver-h320-20gb/review/
[+] [-] jmduke|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] yunong|8 years ago|reply
I personally use mine for swimming. You can buy waterproofed shuffles such as this one: http://a.co/f64p74y and they work extremely well for swimming. In fact when the shuffle was discontinued I immediately bought another one as backup to my trusty waterproof shuffle that I've used for 3 years.
[+] [-] scarface74|8 years ago|reply
For swimming, I guess you could use something like this.
https://www.wareable.com/headphones/best-headphones-for-swim...
[+] [-] mlevental|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] stinkytaco|8 years ago|reply
[1]: I'll qualify that I mean something with a screen and a user interface, because I once had a toaster oven that was pretty great
[+] [-] wwweston|8 years ago|reply
Or maybe once you cross into the digital divide, does the experience and associated nostalgia perhaps not work the same way?
[+] [-] peatmoss|8 years ago|reply
But... I listed to a wider variety of music when I could start at an entry point and browse my way in, possibly tripping on a long un-listened album along the way. Now with most search driven music subscription apps, I feel like
1. Browsing functionality is crap. I typically can't go in looking for a genre and find anything I want to listen to.
2. The search feature is a brick wall of need-to-know-what-you-want-to-listen-to.
Also, having the TV on (routed digitally to a DAC / Amp) to listen to music sucks. Most of the streaming apps for TV scream for attention visually, when I want to—surprise—listen to music.
So yeah, a small interface that I can reliably browse music from like an iPod attached to my sound system but could also be taken with me sounds lovely.
[+] [-] j45|8 years ago|reply
Most electronics will have toasted batteries over time. Devices without easily replaceable batteries will have a harder re-surgence, even if they deserve one.
[+] [-] marbletiles|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dragonwriter|8 years ago|reply
The iPod is a brand and not a product category. The analog, would be standalone digital portable media players having a retro-comeback, not then iPod itself having one.
> Or maybe once you cross into the digital divide, does the experience and associated nostalgia perhaps not work the same way?
Quite possible; is there any aspect of the experience with iPods or other standalone players that is lost using multifunction digital media devices like smartphones?
[+] [-] jbob2000|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dreamcompiler|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] z0d|8 years ago|reply
Still rocking a 5.5G iPod 30GB, Recently modded it with a 200GB MicroSD and it runs on the Rockbox which is Open Source and doesn't have any limit on the songs or storage that my other iPod Classc 6G 80GB has, thanks to Apple for that limit on the 6G iPod Classics, Rockbox can break that limit, But yeah you always need to boot to OF (Official Firmware) to copy tracks onto the iPod else there will be song skipping etc, Perhaps due to the third party HW chipset in between which is the SD Adapter (this is for every iPod 5G-7G with aftermarket modded HW)
And also yeah the 5.5G iPod (I think there are older iPods with this chip plus the iPhone 2G also had this/the same company's chip and 1st gen iPod Touch as well iirc) DAC chip is from Wolfson Audio which used to be great before the CL (Cirrus Logic) engulfed them & this makes it great fun to listen over my CL chip 6G, forget the phones, Apart from the Wolfson powered Voodoo modded Android phones nothing comes close to that level of detail, fun.
To people who want to mod them head over to the iFlash and get a hold of it, you'll be shocked to see how robust these things are. Plus there can be lot of inter mods that can be done like you can fit a 5.xG chipset into a 6-7G shell and vice versa - the frame can be interchanged+faceplate also goes in hand with the respective frame or need to shave a few bits off the metal frame, along with the backplate, headphone jack/hold switch flex cable plus massive battery upgrade(s) also exists - 2000mAh and up, these all are interchangeable. The Clickwheels, LCD panel aren't)
[+] [-] mattdotc|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] starsinspace|8 years ago|reply
Technical aspects really aren't what made the iPod successful. Sure, the clickwheel was a really great idea, and it was an overall well-polished product. But other players were good too. Without the marketing, and without the breakthrough pricing of music on the iTunes Music Store (complete with iPod-ecosystem lockin via DRM), it would have gone nowhere.
In some ways the iPhone is a similar story IMO, but I guess that's even more controversial...
[+] [-] FabHK|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] darreld|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] adam|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kinkrtyavimoodh|8 years ago|reply
When iPods were around everyone referred to any MP3 player as an iPod and most people still say iPad to refer to tablets.
[+] [-] _ph_|8 years ago|reply
The Apple Watch might one day take that role, but for now it doesn't offer enough storage and its interaction is a bit more difficult due to the small size.
[+] [-] scarface74|8 years ago|reply
On the other hand, my next phone will probably be the next generation 4 inch iPhone SE with the most storage I can get when Apple introduces it.
I'm really starting to like the idea of a small phone + an iPad over a slightly larger phone that really doesn't enhance usability for me.
[+] [-] vinceguidry|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ajaimk|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mstade|8 years ago|reply
To be fair, I tend to stick with the same songs anyway, it makes it easy for me to always know how I'm doing with regards to my run, without having to look at the watch or wait for a mile / km update to come along, since I know when in the playlist I should be when reaching certain parts of my track. (Provided I run the same track, that is, but usually I do.)
[+] [-] rahoulb|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] khedoros1|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] qubex|8 years ago|reply
There’s a lot of nostalgia involved in these things. They’re not bad devices. They could have gone on selling them for almost forever.
[+] [-] Overtonwindow|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] panglott|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sizzzzlerz|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thirdsun|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] criddell|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] astura|8 years ago|reply
There's also the non Apple branded ones.
[+] [-] wilsonfiifi|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] robert_foss|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wlesieutre|8 years ago|reply
Wired (I think) sometimes pulls out old stories and puts them on their homepage along with the news, poster might not realized.
Side note, I still have one of those iPod Shuffles around somewhere. Great little device to clip on your running shorts, but it had the weirdest cable. They mapped 4 USB pins onto a TRRS connector and synced it through the headphone jack.
[+] [-] unknown|8 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] unknown|8 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] jccalhoun|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] girvo|8 years ago|reply
I kind of want to go see if it’s in my cupboard still.
[+] [-] Pigo|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] asumaran|8 years ago|reply