When the sky are fill with flying car aviate by our silvery - jumpsuited posterity , chronicle will await upon 2005 as The Year of the iPod ( Again ) . Whereas 2004 established the iPod as a genuine phenomenon , 2005 proved that Apple ’s medicine player had strike beyond mere fad to psychiatric hospital .
MentioniPodand your audience recognize you spoke of the world ’s most popular music player . The pejorativeMP3 playerdenoted medicine - instrumentalist wannabee — less devices that would have to do because an iPod was unavailable or , in the former days of 2005 , financially out of range .
But 2005 realize iPods become more low-cost , as Apple not only insert a low - cost flashgun - based medicine player but edit Leontyne Price on more advanced models as well . The yr also featured Apple ’s rivals maltreat up their efforts to take on both the iPod and the equally popular iTunes Music Store , with vary degrees of success . And Apple spiel a central part in another audio vogue , as its music player and online music store contributed to the explosion of podcasting .
Let ’s count back at the major melodious natural event of 2005 .
The ever-evolving iPod
Anyone flirt the iPod poverty card were bilk early on on in the class when Apple CEO Steve Jobs used his Macworld Expo keynote to reveal the iPod shuffle — Apple ’s first flash retentiveness - based iPod . volunteer capacities of 512 megabyte and 1 GB for $ 99 and $ 149 severally , these iPods were design to rule the low end of the MP3 player market . Available the day of the declaration , shuffles fly off the ledge . To accompany the new iPods , Apple released iTunes 4.7.1 , a version of the programme that propose shuffling compatibility double-dyed with a new AutoFill feature that indiscriminately pack the iPod with MP3 and AAC files from a user ’s music library .
The iPod mini and iPod photo underwent updates of their own in February . belatedly in the monthApple announced a second - generation miniavailable in capacities of 4 GB and 6 GB priced at $ 199 and $ 249.A newfangled $ 349 30 GB iPod exposure replace the older 40 GB modeland Apple dropped the price of the 60 GB iPod pic by $ 150 to $ 449 .
The iPod update parade paused during the outpouring , but Apple was just resting on its accolade ; the company deliver on a promise made in February to furnish an adapter for copying photos directly from a digital camera to a color iPod — theiPod Camera Connector . During March ’s South - by - Southwest medicine conference in Austin , Texas , Apple also roll out itsCustom iTunes Prepaid Cards , small cards that would allow recipients to retrieve a specific raceway from the iTunes Music Store . band found the card a great way to push their latest singles during the conference . at last , May saw the release ofiTunes 4.8 , which incorporated liaison and calendar syncing ( a feature longed for by Windows user ) and TV playback . That last feature would prove to be a significant accession subsequently in the year .
Apple ’s Worldwide Developer ’s Conference in June serve up as the launch domiciliation for thefourth - generation color iPod . for the most part a rebranding of the previous iPod photograph , these “ newfangled ” iPods came in 20 GB and 60 GB capacity and sold for $ 299 and $ 399 , severally — another cost drop from the iPod photo offer . This declaration was accompanied by news that Apple was knocking $ 20 off the damage of the 1 GB iPod make , now selling it for $ 129 .
Apple rolled out the last of 2005 ’s iPod overhauls at two separate military press events in the fall . The first , featuring a functioning by Kanye West , announced the death of the iPod mini and the nascence of the 2 GB and 4 GB iPod nano ( $ 199 and $ 249 severally ) . The September consequence also marked the liberation of the first iTunes - compatible phone , the Motorola Rokr , and the unveiling of iTunes 5 .
Apple ’s 2nd music event took place a month after the first , with the caller replacing the just - released iTunes 5 withiTunes 6 . Steve Jobs also took the wraps off the30 GB and 60 GB iPod with video . Available in the same black or white shell as the nano , these iPods included 2.5 - in color screen and — like the nano before it — miss the previous full - sized iPods ’ Remote Port connection .
To feed the $ 299 and $ 399 5th - contemporaries iPods , Apple sprout the iTunes Music Store with a slim collection of television shows from ABC and Disney , Pixar unforesightful file , and music videos , all sold for $ 1.99 each . Apple reported that 1 million of these videos were sold in their first 20 twenty-four hours of availableness . In December , NBC pursue suit bymaking some of its programming usable through iTunes — include such current syllabus asThe Office , Law & Order , andThe Tonight Show , and classical programme such asAlfred Hitchcock PresentsandDragnet .
The upshot of all these iPod releases ? A cost increase to Apple ’s financial expectation . The company ship nearly 6.2 million iPods in its fiscal third quarter — a 616 percent jump in iPod sales agreement from the twelvemonth - agone period . Other good news for Apple was the report that the iTunes Music Storesold its 500 millionth trackin July . Early in the following month theiTunes Music Store opened in Japanand sold 1 million cartroad in four days . And as the twelvemonth drew to a closing , iPods remained in high requirement with 1 GB iPod shufflesin short supplying . The now - discontinued iPod miniskirt continue ahot item on both eBayand Amazon — often selling formore than the original asking price .
Catching up with Apple
Outside the Apple firmament , other company pursued their digital music strategies as well — to greater and less degree of winner .
After a yr of struggling to advertize its Walkman digital music players and Connect online music service , Sony combine its woes byissuing copy - protected euphony CDsthat could make Windows computers more vulnerable to security department rupture . The caller released a patch to address the security issue , but even the patch up variation was hassle with problems . The company finally recalled million of unnatural discs .
Perhaps the most unrelenting — and voluble — challenge to Apple come from Creative Labs and its Chairman and CEO Sim Wong Hoo . In March , the executive director who terminate 2004 by declare “ war ” on the iPod , proclaimed “ Clearly with the winner of the Zen Micro and our shipment of more than 2 million MP3 players last holiday season , we have gained huge impulse and are cast our competitors on the defensive . ” Apple , handle to keep its composure , refuse to rear barriers around its Cupertino campus .
Creative ’s war - on - the - iPod test costly — for Creative . In June , the companywarned investorsof softer - than - expected MP3 player sales . concisely thereafter , the company was pull in news of a unlike sort , claim a patent onautomatic hierarchal classification of medicine by metadata — and , by extension , the iPod ’s user interface . In December , Creative vowed toaggressively follow its patent .
An iPod partner also fell by the roadside in 2005 . Reflecting the “ Here today , do n’t have the doorway hit you on the way of life out ” nature of Carly Fiorina ’s mid - summer calling , Hewlett - Packardadded an HP - branded iPod miniandan HP iPod shufflein July , only tokill the whole HP - does - iPod dealshortly after Ms. Fiorina was issued her walk report .
The power of podcasting
Podcasting did n’t get its start in 2005 , but this was the year the technology of make downloadable audio single file really rose to prominence . The first wind at how big podcasting would be came in the fountain ; aPew Internet & American Life Project studystated that more than 6 million mass had download podcasts . At the same time , Macworldgot into the podcasting biz with its first podcast .
Podcasting got its braggy boost whenApple transport iTunes 4.9at the destruction of June . That version of the music app added download and subscription support for podcasts within the iTunes Music Store . Additionally , the program include features for bring off those podcasts and moving them on and off an iPod .
Just two day after iTunes 4.9 was released , the iTunes Music Store clockedmore than 1 million podcast subscriptions , many of which to programsoffered by mainstream culture medium .
What’s ahead
New models , enhanced capacity , huge demand , a little more than impotent squeaks from the rivalry . Is there any doubt that the digital euphony aspect was predominate by the iPod — again ? ThoughMacworldwill shortly release official prevision for 2006 , here ’s our unofficial wind : Short of hell freeze out over , look for the iPod to exert its Top Dog position throughout 2006 .
