Since its first release five year ago on October 23 , 2001 , the iPod has become one of the most recognisable ware in the world . It has transform Apple ’s business and its public icon , and is probably responsible for for a “ nimbus effect ” that has improved the Mac ’s ikon and fortune as well . Whether you ’re a rabid iPod buff or someone who just does n’t see why the iPod ’s such a with child softwood , it ’s hard to dispute the gigantic impact the iPod has had on our technological world .
On the Clarence Shepard Day Jr. the iPod was unveiled , none of us knew we were witnessing the arrival of the first iconic product of the twenty-first century . We had a pretty good idea we were going to see an Apple music player , but we receive more than we were expecting . I was there with Macworld ’s Rick LePage , Jonathan Seff , and Philip Michaels — if you bet at the video of the eventposted on YouTube , you could see us in one of the cutaway drawing .
My bill from the case are still on my Mac : an overview of the Digital Hub construct . iDVD 2 ’s ship particular date had slipped a second time , to early November . A demo of iMovie , of iTunes , and of Mac OS X ’s Image Capture service program ( because iPhoto would n’t come into being until 2002 ) . And then , at last , the master event : a music product . “ It ’s a large target grocery , ” Jobs said . “ It know no boundary . No one has really notice the recipe yet for digital euphony . And we think , not only can we find the recipe , but we think the Apple stigma is sound to be rattling , because people trust the Apple brand . ”
Steve Jobs ’ breathless and excited pronouncements are often derided . It ’s hard for me to go to a Jobs presentation without learn someone make a crack about the famous “ Reality Distortion Field ” around Apple ’s CEO . But in the example of the iPod , on this particular October sidereal day in 2001 Jobs could n’t have been more right .
Holding one of those first - genesis iPods in my hand today , it ’s attain just how much the iPodhasn’tchanged in five years . It ’s still a snowy pulley with a unsullied steel back . certainly , the point have evolved : the edges were piercing , but now are quiet ; the covert is now colourful and capable of displaying pic and video recording ; the coil bike does n’t physically move anymore . But that original iPod — with its 5 GB hard drive , full - sized FireWire embrasure , and $ 399 price tag — got a remarkable routine of details right the very first time . No curiosity it became such a success .
Strange new thing
In go through my bank bill of the iPod ’s introduction , I ’m amused by the fact that only one product announcement was suitable of an ecphonesis tip : “ iTunes 2 announce ! ! ” Yes , I granted the iPod a childlike period , but devote two whole exclamation to an update to iTunes feature MP3 CD burning , crossfading , and an equalizer .
At the end of the outcome , we all pick out home pre - release versions of the iPod , which were already dilute with medicine . To make the point that the iPod was n’t meant as a vehicle for music piracy , our iPod software system also turn back a push-down storage of audio CDs , the contents of which matched the medicine pre - loaded on the iPod . The beta version of iTunes that we took home after the event let you drag music back off of your iPod and into iTunes — but Apple made the point of informing us that with the final translation of the software , that lineament would be keep out off . “ Do n’t steal medicine ” suddenly became one of Steve Jobs ’ favorite catch phrase .
What didMacworldthink of the iPod back then ? Honestly , we were about half right . I cogitate most of us understood the product forthwith : on the movement back to San Francisco from Cupertino , I learn that both Rick andJonalready had more than 5 GB Charles Frederick Worth of MP3s in their iTunes libraries . My sum was a bit less than that , meaning that I could outfit my total digital music program library onto that bantam picayune iPod .
But I hold that we were fall up a bit too much on the price . “ Priced at $ 399 , the iPod does not come cheaply , ” we wrote the next mean solar day . “ The Apple iPod sound like a dream get true … Although $ 399 is a hefty fiscal commitment , it buys you a unequaled Apple product that you ’ll determine yourself using everywhere you go . ” Well , okay , it turned out that masses still buy it at $ 399 . The product was plainly too sound to be slow up down by a high price tag .
Five twelvemonth subsequently , I think we ’re more than half right , but I ’ll entrust that mind to the guy writing in this space in the year 2011 .
Memories of 2001
In the run - up to the iPod ’s anniversary , I ’ve spend a bit of meter reflect on what was happening five year ago . A fortune of that nostalgia was spurred on by formerMacworldcolumnist ( and currentNewsweekcontributor ) Steven Levy ’s latest book , “ The Perfect matter : How the iPod Shuffles Commerce , Culture , and Coolness ” ( Simon & Schuster , 2006 ) . In the playscript , the New York - free-base Levy plaint that he could n’t be present at the iPod ’s launch , but reminds us that in those day so shortly after the September 11 attacks , flying across the res publica was a traumatic issue . ( On the brighter side , Levy get to be the first person to lay an iPod on Bill Gates . ) I had the good luck to chat with Levy about his book on the most recent variant of the Macworld Podcast .
Five years ago my wife and I were carry our first child . When I came home with that sample distribution iPod , I suggested to her that rather than fire a compact disk of soothing euphony to play in the delivery room , she could establish a play list that we would load on the iPod . Over the next few weeks , she build a playlist called “ Baby , ” and I sync it to the iPod . I institute the iPod , a cassette adapter , and a boombox to the hospital , and played it during labor . I ’d like to think that , outside of Apple , my girl — abide three days before the iPod started shipping — was the first of one thousand of kids to come into the world to the sound of an iPod .
So forgive me if I get a little sentimental when I talk about the day of remembrance of the iPod . Yes , it ’s a great product that has changed the course of Apple . But I admit it : I ’m emotionally tie to the iPod , too . It ’s become a part of my everyday life as well as my personal chronicle . felicitous Birthday , little guy .
