Jon Rubinstein on the development of the iPod [video]
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Re: Jon Rubinstein on the development of the iPod [video]
#2iPods are just a stolen ideas bolted on stolen design, based on 3rd party hw and sw, so it isn't a miracle they made it in 11 months.
Re: Jon Rubinstein on the development of the iPod [video]
#3The key to the ipod's success was, in my opinion, the iTunes store and Apple's excellent marketing. At no point in the ipod's history was it particularly innovative with its hardware in comparison to competing devices but the enormous amounts of work that went into forging an infrastructure-level cultural presence paid dividends when it came to ipod sales. For over a decade iTunes was the place you bought music online, just as now YouTube is where you watch user-created videos and Gmail is where you get a free email address.
Re: Jon Rubinstein on the development of the iPod [video]
#4The key to the ipod's success was, in my opinion, the iTunes store and Apple's excellent marketing. At no point in the ipod's history was it particularly innovative with its hardware in comparison to competing devices but the enormous amounts of work that went into forging an infrastructure-level cultural presence paid dividends when it came to ipod sales. For over a decade iTunes was the place you bought music onlin…
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.
Re: Jon Rubinstein on the development of the iPod [video]
#5The key to the ipod's success was, in my opinion, the iTunes store and Apple's excellent marketing. At no point in the ipod's history was it particularly innovative with its hardware in comparison to competing devices but the enormous amounts of work that went into forging an infrastructure-level cultural presence paid dividends when it came to ipod sales. For over a decade iTunes was the place you bought music onlin…
> At no point in the ipod's history was it particularly innovative with its hardware in comparison to competing devices
When the iPod came out I remember the main competitor was the Creative Nomad Jukebox. It was bulky (it was the around the same size as a Sony discman), the screen was small, and it had like 11 weirdly shaped buttons, and I think had recharable AA batteries (that took like 12 hours to charge). It was awesome to have all those songs on there, but the thing was a chore to use.
The original iPod was Mac only but it was delightful to use, it fit in your pocket, had an innovative scrolling mechanic, and charged through the same wire as it used for data.
Of course marketing and harmony with iTunes helped a ton, but pound for pound the iPod was simply a better product even without those crutches.
Re: Jon Rubinstein on the development of the iPod [video]
#6The key to the ipod's success was, in my opinion, the iTunes store and Apple's excellent marketing. At no point in the ipod's history was it particularly innovative with its hardware in comparison to competing devices but the enormous amounts of work that went into forging an infrastructure-level cultural presence paid dividends when it came to ipod sales. For over a decade iTunes was the place you bought music onlin…
No: the iPod's success was in playing the vast library of pirated music everybody had collected on their desktop PC for years thanks to Napster, Kazaa, etc. Remember the fad of "burning" CDs? That was not based on "infrastructure-level cultural presence", but rampant music piracy in the 90s.
Re: Jon Rubinstein on the development of the iPod [video]
#7The key to the ipod's success was, in my opinion, the iTunes store and Apple's excellent marketing. At no point in the ipod's history was it particularly innovative with its hardware in comparison to competing devices but the enormous amounts of work that went into forging an infrastructure-level cultural presence paid dividends when it came to ipod sales. For over a decade iTunes was the place you bought music onlin…
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.
Re: Jon Rubinstein on the development of the iPod [video]
#8The key to the ipod's success was, in my opinion, the iTunes store and Apple's excellent marketing. At no point in the ipod's history was it particularly innovative with its hardware in comparison to competing devices but the enormous amounts of work that went into forging an infrastructure-level cultural presence paid dividends when it came to ipod sales. For over a decade iTunes was the place you bought music onlin…
The iTunes store might have been important, but at least to me, the user interface was the amazing part. I remember when I got my first iPod. I already had a shitty mp3 player and a ton of illegally downloaded music, so I didn't need to use the iTunes store. I remember being amazed at how intuitive it was to choose an album to play, or an artist. So easy.
Re: Jon Rubinstein on the development of the iPod [video]
#9The key to the ipod's success was, in my opinion, the iTunes store and Apple's excellent marketing. At no point in the ipod's history was it particularly innovative with its hardware in comparison to competing devices but the enormous amounts of work that went into forging an infrastructure-level cultural presence paid dividends when it came to ipod sales. For over a decade iTunes was the place you bought music onlin…
The click/touch wheel with acceleration was a huge deal for being able to browse through large music libraries quickly. The up/down button on other players was terrible in comparison.
Re: Jon Rubinstein on the development of the iPod [video]
#10The key to the ipod's success was, in my opinion, the iTunes store and Apple's excellent marketing. At no point in the ipod's history was it particularly innovative with its hardware in comparison to competing devices but the enormous amounts of work that went into forging an infrastructure-level cultural presence paid dividends when it came to ipod sales. For over a decade iTunes was the place you bought music onlin…
I don't agree with people down-rating a post they disagree with. However, I have to disagree. The iPod was simply the best hardware to play the most songs. I've used many cd players and MP3 cd players, and the HD iPod was the best interface with a scrool wheel, and the best deal on capacity.
Of course, you could say the iTunes way of structuring metadata was essential for the UI, and I would agree. However, I hated the iTunes software on the desktop, and I've always ran alternative clients, and I know many others who did as well. When alternative iPod software came up that had directory support, that was great too.
After the iPod became popular, no other company was able to come up with the alternative, equally capable storage/price hardware. It took years for Sony/Creative to come up with good alternatives, and then iPhone took over.