As stated by individuals like the renowned American venture capitalist, Peter Thiel and news organisations from all over the globe - Apple’s imminent crash has begun. The first month of 2019 has proven not to be the best for Apple, with their stock plunging, crashing and fluctuating - the tech giant’s fate remains a mystery. A company who’s stock once soared at 700% with the first release of the iPhone and the very company which radically changed the mobile phone market over a decade ago, may be finally coming down. Thus it is the perfect time for us to pay our condolences and reflect on the product that truly started it all, the first generation of the iPod.
The iPod was first introduced in the winter of 2001, Apple had been working on it for about a year, lead by Jon Rubinstein, Apple's senior vice president of hardware engineering at the time - the first generation of iPod revolutionised mp3 players. It is important to note the era that the iPod was developed in, users were allowed to visually read and pick the songs they wanted to listen to which was a feature that was unheard of in mp3 players, with the only close comparison coming to mobile phones. Not only that, the iPod included features like the scroll wheel, surrounded by four buttons, the wheel allowed the user to shift through options quickly, the buttons surrounding the wheel let the user play/ pause, forward and replay the specific song.
The importance of the iPod was not only the device, but the entire ecosystem that it depended on and the connection Apple was able to create. From iTunes on the computer to iCloud, the iPod was the “one link in a chain that brought music to the ears with elegance and simplicity.” Apple’s integration of hardware and software made the user experience much easier than what other devices of the time offered.
The iPod truly allowed the consumer to enjoy the now simple process of listening to music that we experience in our day to day lives. It catered to customers of all genders, ages and backgrounds as the product understood the needs of the consumers, Apple’s research and technological development allowed the product to excel at solving those complications which other mp3 players were unable to solve.
The iPod's design is iconic. Design museums around the world display iPods proudly. Apple's senior vice president of industrial design, Jonathan Ive, has earned multiple awards and accolades. It has had an enormous impact on the average consumer's perception of Apple. Pre- iPod, Apple was primarily a computer company, The success of the Macintosh computers can be attributed to the company's focus on the consumers rather than on raw technology (a critical success factor that seems to still elude many companies). The iPod brought a philosophy to the consumer electronics market, a factor that played a key role in the development of the first iPhone as well. The device, like many of Jobs’ later inventions, dictated consumer tastes rather than responding to them.
Although Apple’s reign of the technology market of nearly two decades may be coming to an end, their ability to understand their market and develop radical inventions to assist our daily needs is undeniable. With the likes of the iPod and the iPhone, that accelerated the company’s growth to the billions - their fate remains uncertain, although their guidance towards the shaping of the modern world will never be forgotten.
http://techland.time.com/2011/10/21/the-ipod-turns-10-how-it-
shaped-music-history/
https://mashable.com/2011/10/23/impact-of-ipod/#RIKQitAlLEqt
https://www.macworld.com/article/1163179/ipods/how-the-ipod- changed-the-world-of-music.html
