Jon Rubinstein on the development of the iPod [video]

Post by kirykl » Tue, Mar 24, 2020, 3:53 PM UTC

joe_bleau wrote: post #16

[no time for video, so if these are answered let me know...] Two things I never got about the iPod: Why not add a second headphone jack so two people could listen and share the experience? Why didn't Apple preload some music (maybe classical stuff in the public domain, performed by affordable Eastern European orchestras) for a better out of the box experience? Think about kids getting an iPod at Christmas; until it w…

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Mar 24, 2020, 4:22 PM UTC

friendlybus wrote: post #22

Causality1 wrote: post #3

The 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…

Slashdot has a famous article edited by CmdrTaco declaring the iPod to be lame for not comparing favourably in tech specs to other devices. Jobs has always been big on timing and marketing. He was watching multitouch since the 80s. Apple knew how to take developing tech and make it cool. Tech specs and innovation have always been 1/4 of the deal.

Post by stevekemp » Tue, Mar 24, 2020, 4:26 PM UTC

Ididntdothis wrote: post #11

Causality1 wrote: post #3

The 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 had been using quite a few MP3 players before the iPod but the iPod was the first device that brought together high capacity with very good usability. A very similar thing happened with the iPhone. There were smart cellphones with all the features before but the iPhone was the first to combine everything into an elegant package. I think that always was the real strength of Apple starting from the Apple II: wrapping…

Post by huhtenberg » Tue, Mar 24, 2020, 4:40 PM UTC

lukifer wrote: post #34

friendlybus wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Slashdot has a famous article edited by CmdrTaco declaring the iPod to be lame for not comparing favourably in tech specs to other devices. Jobs has always been big on timing and marketing. He was watching multitouch since the 80s. Apple knew how to take developing tech and make it cool. Tech specs and innovation have always been 1/4 of the deal.

> famous article edited by CmdrTaco "No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame." (Nomads were pretty technically impressive at the time, but good luck fitting one in your pocket, or finding the track you want in a collection of thousands.)

    darkpuma> cmdrtaco is wrongly maligned, the ipod would
              not become massively successful until further
              revisions were released.

    cmdrtaco> Thank you for setting the record straight!

Post by selectodude » Tue, Mar 24, 2020, 4:58 PM UTC

terracatta wrote: post #5

Causality1 wrote: post #3

The 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…