Apple? Yes, Apple, that big corporation which is today known to everyone, has played possibly the most important role inside the tech industry over the past decade, putting everything we love & need in our pocket.
Let's think about it. Before Apple's iPod, we wouldn't dare to think about the number of songs we could take with us, we had to pick a single cd to put in our music player, and that was it. And then, we got the iPhone, which revolutioned and changed the smartphone market forever, and brought us the standard by which most smartphones live and attempt to improve. But Apple wasn't always Apple, so please join us after the break as we try to understand the iPod and its impact in Apple's history from our perspective.
I still remember those days in which a friend would call me and say "Hey, I've seen a Mac at the mall downtown. It's pretty cool. I wonder when I'll be able to buy one.", thinking "This guy doesn't know what he's getting into." Yes, there was a time, where Apple and its Mac, as we all know them today in modern society, were little more than a rumour; the PC's lost and forgotten rivals. I believe very few, at the beginning of this decade, knew Macs used an operating system called Mac OS X, and that they were very user-friendly and straight-forward to use, even more than PCs. Where their products bad at that time? Of course they weren't, but there was no Apple awareness; none of us understood what it meant to have a product designed and built by Apple, until iTunes and its iTunes Music Store. (First iPod commercial below)
Though in the US the story was different, we believe in Europe there was no iPod "boom" until iTunes arrived with its music store and PC compatibility. But once it started, consumers were pushed into the Apple brand and its iPod line. Suddenly, people on the streets were walking with those white earphones, and as soon as a friend of yours, a neighbour or a relative showed you one, you knew what those white earphones meant: an iPod. Apple understood the meaning of its white earphones very quickly, and has not stopped calling them back again and again in their ads; the earphones meant an iPod, and the iPod meant Apple. (iPod commercial below)
So, why is the iPod so important to Apple's history? It made us all know what Apple was about. Not only did the iPod lead the road for Apple's financial sucess these years; not only did the iPod smash all of its rivals in the portable music player industry, but it also made us consumers aware of Apple's fine attention to detail, polish and refinement that made their products so special. We all understood this was Apple's signature, and suddenly, all Apple products changed perspective.
At launch, the iPod had no problems in outperforming established MP3 players by Creative and Diamond Multimedia, because it built the market all by itself, and once its embedded message reached mainstream consumers, there was no stop; until the rise of the iPhone, iPods kept outselling themselves month after month, year after year. The iPod's hit built an entire line of products from Apple, supported by third parties with cases, batteries, chargers, docks, speakers, etc. without a single match in the business. As of today, Apple still holds nearly 75% of the portable MP3 market, and as stated by Steve Jobs, the future of Apple stopped relying in Macs from long time ago; the company even dropped the name Apple Computer, Inc. it had since January 1977 to became Apple, Inc just three years ago.
The iPod stood the test of time, until the iPhone brought the iPod Touch, which started leaving iPods old, in favor of the iPhone's cousin. But was it all about Apple design? Was it because of the technology? Was it because of the iTunes Music Store? Undoubtedly, the iPod's sucess lies in all three of them and more, but we would like to point out a factor that is still important in today's tech industry. The iPod made us realise there was something more important than having a good product; over time, there have been many competitors to the iPod, and many were very compelling, with even better features and lower price tags; in fact, today you can find Microsoft's outstanding Zune, and you will still find that there's something missing in that product: it's not an iPod.
As simple as that. The iPod on its own became more than a fashion device, it became a symbol of status. You can have a Creative MP3 Player or a Microsoft Zune, but at the end of the day, when you show it to your friends, your neighbours and your relatives, all they'll see is an iPod copycat, and if it's not an iPod, it's just another MP3 Player anyone can buy. Despite the fact everyone knows and understands what an iPod is today, I doubt anyone of us has thought about living without at least having an iPod in our homes.
We can say the iPod created Apple. In our minds, for most of us, it really did; it made us aware of Apple and the halo of exclusivity and perfection which surrounds most of their products. With the iPod, Apple gained a meaning, and all of Apple's products, from that day forwards, carry that same meaning. Since the iPod, seeing a new Apple product means it's important and it needs our attention, and in Part Two we will continue with how the iPod pushed Apple's more recent history and products.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPod
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Apple
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc.
http://lowendmac.com/orchard/05/origin-of-the-ipod.html
http://lowendmac.com/orchard/05/ipod-history-since-2005.html
http://www.techradar.com/news/portable-devices/mp3-players/a-history-of-the-ipod-the-gadget-that-put-apple-in-your-pocket-634046
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