Apple ended production of the iPod Touch this morning and stopped the product that has existed since October 23, 2001. After almost 22 years, one of the most important products in the history of the world of technology, especially Apple, was discontinued because it is no longer relevant with the passage of time.
For those of you who may be too young to go through the heyday of the iPod, this article will try to remind you why we say the iPod is among the most important devices ever produced. In other multimestas like Dr. Strange, the world without iPods is very different from what we now know.
Evolution Begins October 23, 2001
On this historic date the late Steve Jobs announced the first MP3 music player from Apple. According to Steve Jobs ’biography by Walter Isaacson, Jobs had trouble using the Rio MP3 player which at the time was marketed as the best on the market. Jobs, Phill Schiller and Jon Rubenstein (Apple’s vice president of hardware engineering) agree that all the music players on the market are bad. Large size, too heavy, small storage, slow storage and the biggest sin is the dizzying interface.
Source - @Foone
Jobs believes Apple’s expertise in software can be combined with their engineering expertise to produce the best MP3 players on the market. Apple was lucky because Toshiba showed Rubenstein a prototype of thin hard drive storage with a 5GB capacity of just 1.8 ″. 5GB may now not be enough for the operating system but is big enough to hold 1000 MP3 songs.
Apple immediately bought all of these compact hard drive supplies for use on iPods. Rubenstein also wholesales small LCD screens for upcoming music players. The hardware was then combined with software whose development was led by Tony Fadell who previously worked at Philips. The idea of his MP3 player didn’t get much attention at Philips and after learning Apple was developing the iPod he immediately moved company.
According to Fadell the biggest challenge when developing the iPod was that Steve Jobs asked the team that produced the software to simplify the interface. Each feature according to Jobs should be accessible with just three clicks. The iconic iPod navigation wheel is used because Jobs doesn’t want users to have to press buttons repeatedly to scroll through thousands of saved songs.
On October 23, 2001, the iPod was unveiled to the public. It's fast because it uses a FireWire connection that allows 1000 songs to be transferred to the iPod in just 10 minutes instead of 5 hours using the popular USB connection at the time. iTunes launched in January of the same month and now Apple controls how digital music can be synced to an iPod more easily.
IPod fever
Despite being priced at $ 399 (equivalent to $ 647 in 2022) which is expensive for 2021, sales of the first version of the iPod in the first quarter were around 125,000 units. Sales are low because the iPod can only be used with macOS computers only because iTunes is not offered on other operating systems. Phil Schiller later managed to persuade Jobs to offer iTunes on Windows computers. As a result iPod sales reached 1 million units in September 2003. In 2004, more than 4 million units were successfully sold which is far more than the total sales of Mac computers that year. Graphic campaign
In addition to offerings on Windows, the iTunes Store which launched on April 28, 2003. was also a catalyst to soaring iPod sales. Through it, songs can be purchased through legal channels for as low as $ 0.99 each. Steve Jobs fought with several record companies to allow the sale of songs separately.
Previously only singles were sold separately while more music had to be purchased in the form of a complete album. With music sales plummeting sharply after Napster, Kazaa, and Gnutella were introduced, music company owners bowed to Job and now buying songs separately has become the norm.
The message conveyed by Jobs is to use our platform and get some profit or continue the old practice until the industry is destroyed due to piracy. Because the iPod music industry was successfully saved and now streaming is replacing iTunes. Apple which originally refused to offer streaming services has finally complied (like record companies in the early millennium) to follow current trends. The purchase of Beats Music in 2014 was a stepping stone to the launch of Apple Music in 2015 and the closure of iTunes three years ago.
From MP3 to the First Smartphone
It’s no exaggeration to say Apple’s Second Renaissance era happened as iPod sales made the company’s name begin to be known to many. It is no longer limited to computer technology enthusiasts only. Through the iPod, Apple’s name is on par with Sony as a manufacturer of commercial products for consumers. I was one of those people who never knew the Apple brand before the iPod became an electronic device that needs to be bought if you want to look cool while in college.
After several iterations of the iPod were introduced, Steve Jobs began to think it was time to produce an iPod with phone capabilities. As we reported yesterday, the initial prototype of the iPod Phone was an iPod with a rotating navigation wheel and a T9 keypad. In the early stages Jobs insisted a phone with an iPod rotating wheel navigation system was a good solution.
Only after several attempts by the team under Tony Fadell failed to provide an experience that surpassed Jobs’s standards, did he agree a better interface system needed to be used. A prototype tablet with a touch screen and macOS -based interface was shown to him. He immediately realized this technology could be used on a phone.
Macworld 2007 - "An iPod, telephone and Internet communication tool"
Many may not realize that even though the iPad was launched in 2010, it was created much earlier than the iPhone that launched in 2007. Full focus was given to producing the first smartphone with a touch screen. Do you still remember the days of using phones with physical keyboards, resistive screens that required a stylus and a slow operating system?
At Macworld 2007 Steve Jobs shocked the world when he said Apple would launch a device that was “an iPod, a phone and an internet communication tool” in one. The paradigm shift in the design of a smartphone began with the first Generation iPhone.
A touch screen that detects the touch of 10 fingers becomes standard. The use of skeumorphic interface designs is popularized. Devices with a home button on the front are popular. In the early stages the iPhone was ridiculed the big names of the telecommunications industry because Apple was seen as a company that did not have extensive experience in producing phones. The iPhone is so different from existing phones that some are predicting this will result in consumers not buying it.
We are now in 2022 and 15 years after the iPhone was introduced clearly all the decisions taken by Apple in 2007 became industry following. Their closest competitors Ericsson and Nokia are no longer listed as the world's 10 largest smartphone manufacturers. Steve Jobs' two deviant predictions are just that
No one wants to use a smartphone with a stylus
A small phone screen requiring only one hand would be standard.
iPod Touch To Apple Watch
The iPod was also a catalyst for the production of the Apple Watch. After the iPod Nano Gen 6 launched in 2010, many owners turned it into a smartwatch using a strapped frame. From here Sir Jony Ive got the idea to produce the Apple Watch which is now a smartwatch with the highest market share in the world.
The lack of the iPod Nano Gen 6 like a battery that doesn’t last long to be a watch and the lack of bluetooth support makes owners have to attach EarPods directly to the wrist. But just as the iPod inspired Steve Jobs to produce the iPhone, the iPod Nano Gen 6 also inspired the Apple Watch.
7504 Days
The Apple iPod curtain has been docked after 7504 days of launch and 26 models launched. Unexpectedly an MP3 music player with a capacity of 5GB can leave a pretty big impact in the world of mobile phones, online music stores, streaming, and smart watches. Thanks to Tony Fadell and Jon Rubenstein who are co -creators of the Apple iPod. Happy retirement and this makes us want to ask you a golden question today.
What electronic products do you feel will have a big impact on the world of technology like the Apple iPod?