[as2]

Who'd have thought that it would go on to revolutionise the face of music as we know it!

Just been browsing through some old links and stuff and found the Slashdot post on the original iPod.

Slashdot | Apple releases iPod

While the initial posters comments of

No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.

are interesting none the less, it's even more amusing to see what people commented below.

Well it's nearly 6 years from the original iPod, and guess what... it's finally got Wireless!!

Was the iPod ever destined to be lame?

[mitchell_pgh]

Most people that dislike the iPod generally attack the hardware. What they forget is that the iPod is only a piece of the puzzle. IMHO, iTunes is the key to the success of the iPod.

Also, many people on slashdot recognized just how popular it would be.

[drmcnutt]

The thing I find funny is that before Apple gave in to video the iPod pundits would say that Apple is doing one things the "best" and not attempting to do many things with the one device (like so many players started implementing video). Well she sure came a long way from that.


Of course I knew the iPod would be big when Oprah gave it away in her "things I like" segment.

[richwig83]

iTunes is the key to the success of the iPod

I disagree. If you has an ipod you have to use itunes!!! If the ipod could be used with WMP etc it would be open to a larger audience (back in my pcs days i would have rather used WMP than convert all my tunes into itunes)!!

The ipod is successful because its a great piece of hardware, its a great physical design and has brilliant user interface!

[Dork.]

I think one of the interesting things about the way the iPod has changed over the years is how Apple has taken this little piece of technology and turned it into something that everyone can use. Do you rememeber what MP3 players were like in 2001? Their interfaces sucked, they had small capacity, and the assumption was that every MP3 was obtained illegally via the original Napster. Apple took a big risk by entering this market, and made it pay off by making it easy for a non-techie to use.

iTunes is a big part of that ease-of-use. Yes, we techies find it restricting in many areas, but for a newbie it's perfect. My mom bought an iPod, and is able to rip CD's and load the music onto her iPod, even though she needs help to find the power button on her PC! And integrating a music store into it was icing on the cake. People said it couldn't be done because the major labels would never let their content be distributed that way. But Steve has proven that he's more stubborn. Because the labels were so wishy-washy and wouldn't do it themselves, Apple has pretty much taken over digital music distribution. Everyone else is playing catch-up. Not bad for a company that has only been in the electronic music business for six years.

Techies knew all about wireless in 2001. But Apple waited until wireless became more ubiquitous, and displays evolved so that you could do more than just sync via wireless. If they had introduced wireless in 2001, it would have been too power-hungry and no one would have used it. Compare it to when Microsoft came out with the Zune. Sure, it had wireless, but what could you do with it? Squirt DRM'ed songs around? Apple's wireless iPod is actually useful!

[lavar78]

As a frustrated Nomad user at the time, I knew just how wrong CmdrTaco was. That thing was huge (the size of a portable CD player), the rechargeable batteries were a PITA, the interface was ridiculous, and loading songs by USB1.1 (using their crap software) had to be done overnight. I bought the original iPod as soon as they were available and that was that. It took other companies way too long to realize that size and interface were the two most important features of hard-drive players. Apple got it right on the first try and that's why they dominate the market to this day.

[shifuimam]

Originally Posted by richwig83 

I disagree. If you has an ipod you have to use itunes!!! If the ipod could be used with WMP etc it would be open to a larger audience (back in my pcs days i would have rather used WMP than convert all my tunes into itunes)!!

Not exactly true. iTunes is the bane of my existence, and I refuse to even install it on my Windows machines. You can use Anapod Explorer in Windows, or freeware solutions like EphPod and YamiPod. YamiPod runs directly off the ipod, and there are Windows, Linux, and OS X versions.

If the DRM were open to other hardware, and the hardware were OOTB compatible with other software (particularly WMP, since it comes with Windows), that would be nice - but Apple's track record shows that will never happen. They enjoy their proprietary, closed system mentality when it comes to the iPod line.

The ipod is successful because its a great piece of hardware, its a great physical design and has brilliant user interface!

...And now other hardware has modeled after the iPod, and all the mainstream MP3 players have excellent interfaces and usability. We can at the very least thank Apple for helping users rethink the DAP experience.

[icruise]

Yes, I like to periodically go back and read the initial reactions to the iPod to remind myself how wrong people can be.

I made similar threads back when Apple sold 1 million iPods (4 years ago) and when they sold 100 million iPods (earlier this year).

[stuffedmonkey]

The thing is, there were serious flaws in the first iPod.... as is the case with all first gen products. I don't think people forsaw the potential of the product because it was Mac only at the time. Apple didn't exactly have a rep for making things work on other platforms. Plus the market didn't really explode until the Mini was added into the fold... Most of the revolution was really just well done evolutionary steps.

The funny thing is this entire market could have belonged to Sony if they weren't so f'd in the head. If not for ATRAC imagine what they could have done *way* before anyone else.....

[icruise]

What were the serious flaws? (Aside from being Mac-only, which is only a flaw from the perspective of mass-market acceptance.)

[JonoMarshall]

I bought my first iPod precisely because I felt it was less flawed than other MP3 players in the market?!

(I'd tried the 32mb Yepp, the Rio, the CD-player-sized-jukebox-thingy at the time, etc.)

[lavar78]

Originally Posted by JonoMarshall 

I bought my first iPod precisely because I felt it was less flawed than other MP3 players in the market?!

Exactly. It was light years ahead of the competition from Day 1.

[stuffedmonkey]

Originally Posted by icruise 

What were the serious flaws? (Aside from being Mac-only, which is only a flaw from the perspective of mass-market acceptance.)

As best as I can remember from my time working at the Apple store when the thing came out:

1) Mac only - Not a flaw per se - but the Windows version was the leap of faith needed for mass market sucess.

2) The early toshiba microdrives were really fragile. Those things had a nasty habit of going clicky clicky click dead...

3) The 6 pin firewire port solder joint would work loose over time, It could be fixed if you pulled the thing and resoldered it, but many people don't want to do that sort of thing.

4) Firewire port didnt ahve a cover - so it would get filled with crud and make bad contact at times

5) The thing skipped.... people forget how it used to be in the early days, but if you worked out with a first gen it would skip pretty badly.

6) $400 - The market can support a $400 player obviously, but having the Minis and Nanos at lower price points is what made the whole thing take off.

7) Nonreplaceable battery (at least they fixed the first 6 things)

Don't get me wrong - it was by far the best product in it's class, but the class was suspect at the time. Hard drive based players are a poor second to flash based players in so many ways (except capacity obviously). Now it's all about the Nanos... Great price, great battery life,


I wish that the lessons learned could be carried abck to the computer side of Apple - IE if you make the headless xmac/normal minitower that everyone wants, they will buy it. Your margins will be slimmer, but will do massive volume and see increased software sales.

[icruise]

Which Apple store did you work at? As I recall there were only a handful open when the iPod was introduced.

Anyway, I wouldn't exactly classify those as serious flaws. If something like hard disk fragility resulted in high mortality rates with first-gen iPods, it would be different, but I don't really think that's the case. We've got 3 first-gen iPods in my family, all still working fine, and still with reasonable battery life, too. But in any case, you framed your statement as if there were serious flaws with the original iPod that kept it from attaining mass acceptance. I don't think most of these (even the price) were that big of an obstacle. The main problems in that sense were the lack of Windows and USB support. And of course related to this was the lack of iTunes for Windows, which didn't show up until a while after iPods became Windows compatible. It's hard to believe that Apple was relying on Music Match Jukebox for syncing. iTunes is half of what makes the iPod great, IMHO.

[stuffedmonkey]

Seriously - don't get me wrong, the iPod was way better then any hard disk based player at the time, and it still is the best. But the later insane success of the later versions of the product make people forget how rough the mp3 market as a whole was.

Mass market acceptance happened once all the details were worked out. My theory (and it is just a theory) is that it was the smaller, lighter Mini that tipped the scales, along of course with the availability of a Windows version.