History of iPods
The iPod has revolutionized portable music. Beginning with the transistor radio in the 1950s, leading to the Sony Walkman in the late 1970s and eventually the Discman in 1984, technology has allowed music lovers to enjoy their favorite albums on the go in increasingly smaller sizes and with higher quality sound. The iPod is the next generation of personal audio devices and has established itself as an icon of the digital age.
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History
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Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak started Apple Computers (now known as Apple Inc.) in the 1970s. From its inception, Apple has striven to break the mold by combining technology with originality. Apple's innovative attitude has historically meant to compete with the more staid, business-like image of its biggest competitors: Microsoft and IBM.
In spite of pioneering the graphical, windows-style interface that is widely in use today, Apple's following remained small and selective during the 20th century, with most detractors citing lack of compatibility as reasons to remain loyal to Apple's competitors.
In late 2001, Apple Inc. launched its first version of the iPod, retailing for $399 with a 5 GB hard-drive (a massive amount of storage space compared to other portable media players at the time). Although critics were aghast by the high price tag, the iPod was an instant success. With the success of the first iPod, Apple Inc. was finally able to break out of its niche market and enter into the mainstream.
Features
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In essence, the iPod is merely a portable hard disk with pre-loaded proprietary software designed to play music. The first generation iPod boasted many novel features never before seen in a personal music device, such as the click wheel navigation, a large digital screen,and, most importantly, high capacity and read/write capabilities.
Unlike an audio compact disc, which typically holds 80 minutes of music and cannot be overwritten, the hard disk on an iPod can be updated easily by synching it with a computer. With the large amount of disk space, iPod owners can potentially "rip" their entire CD collection and place it onto their iPod, deleting and replacing songs or entire albums as they see fit.
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Types
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The success of the first iPod gave Apple the clout and financial backing to continue to refine and redesign the iPod. As of late 2008, there are five different kinds of iPods. Here they are in chronological order of release:
The iPod Classic: About the size of a pack of cigarettes, black and white screen, has up to 10GB of storage.
The iPod mini: About half the size of the iPod Classic, color screen, 4GB of storage.
The iPod Nano: Same size as the iPod mini, black and white or color screen, 1 to 16 GB of space depending on model.
The iPod shuffle: About half the size of the Nano, no screen, 1 to 2GB of storage
The iPod Touch: Same size as the Classic, color screen, 8, 16 or 32GB of storage.
Newer models of the iPod can hold not just songs but pictures, videos, ebooks, and other data as well. In 2005, Apple released the fifth generation of the iPod classic which was the first iPod capable of playing video. In September 2007, the iPod nano line also gained video capability.
The iPhone is a hybrid of the iPod touch and a cellular telephone, allowing users to access the Web, download games and software, email, and place phone calls all on the same device.
Considerations
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Like any product, the iPod is not without its detractors and critics.
Following the initial success of the iPod, several companies filed lawsuits against Apple claiming they already owned a patent for various iPod features. The majority of the lawsuits were dismissed.
A company called Creative Technology sued Apple over patent issues in 2005. Creative was marginally successful in its lawsuit, and Apple was ordered to pay the company $100 million.
There have also been some hardware issues associated with the iPod over the years. One of the most annoying issues for consumers is battery life. Most users find that on average, the battery life of their iPod is significantly lower than advertised. For instance, a 30GB iPod that advertises around 14 hours of battery life usually only lasts for 8 hours. It can also be very costly to replace worn out batteries in iPods, as most of them have to be taken or sent to an Apple vendor in order to get a replacement battery.
Another hardware problem, with the early iPods especially, is durability. Many users have complained that the iPod Nano can become scratched and broken easily. Enough people had this complaint that a class action lawsuit was filed against Apple Inc., finally forcing the company to ship all iPods with a protective sleeve.
Effects
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Though perhaps not the first digital music player developed, iPods have certainly paved the way for other companies to begin marketing similar products. The high price point and proprietary marketing (i.e. the requirement of installing iTunes, digital rights management on purchased songs and limited developer insight into the iPod's firmware) created many opportunities for competitors. Again, Apple Inc. faces its familiar competitor, Microsoft has released the Zune, and portable music grandfather Sony has also released its own Walkman-branded MP3 device.
The methods in which music is marketed has also changed. With digital audio files, such as MP3s, WMAs, and M4As, dominating many users collections, fewer customers are shopping for music in brick-and-mortar stores and instead are turning to online outlets. More troublesome is the fact that many would-be music customers are merely sharing music files amongst their peers, which gains zero profit for the artist and distributor. Because of the sheer impossibility of quelling widespread music piracy, many artists and labels are seeking to adapt to digital trends by offering extra perks for physical releases or official conduits for digital releases.
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