I can’t remember any portable MP3 playing device before iPod that wasn’t a joke. Are you thinking of a particular product that was comparable? I’m curious.
Define "a joke". There were quite a few flash-based players that predate the ipod and a couple of hard drive based ones. Heck, Rio was three generations into their mp3 players when the ipod was released.
Apple fixed the experience for non-nerd. Instead of having to go online and find music files yourself you could just go buy them.
I had the Rio 600 before the iPod (https://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/rio600/) . It was definitely a joke, 32MB could barely fit a single CD and that was only after degrading the bitrate of the rip to a degree that it was really scratchy.
The Rio had slow transfer speed (USB), hardly any storage (less than one CD), big ugly form factor... and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t rechargeable. My buddy at the time bought one. It did not impress.
The tech for the first iPod (Firewire and a 5GB hdd) made it essentially a different category of device.
I was constantly shopping around for MP3 players, they were too expensive with too little space, or not great reliability. The issue is that for a young person, such as myself, this was a big investment. The best thing to do before the iPod was really an mp3 cd player, because you could have many of these CDs.
If all we're working with anecdata, I honestly don't know anyone who didn't have an mp3 collection before the iTunes store.
Causality1|6 years ago
Apple fixed the experience for non-nerd. Instead of having to go online and find music files yourself you could just go buy them.
blaird|6 years ago
tehwebguy|6 years ago
Everything about it sucked ass, including transferring songs over serial.
charlesism|6 years ago
The tech for the first iPod (Firewire and a 5GB hdd) made it essentially a different category of device.
Demiurge|6 years ago
If all we're working with anecdata, I honestly don't know anyone who didn't have an mp3 collection before the iTunes store.