An Ode to the iPod
Gone but not forgotten; a symbol of a simpler time...
Welcome back! Took a few weeks off, but I couldn’t NOT comment on the death of the iPod line….
All good things must come to an end... For the iPod, this day was May 10, 2022, when Apple released a newsroom post entitled, “The music lives on”, announcing that the iPod touch would remain available “while supplies last”.
The iPod touch, first released in 2007 and last updated in 2019, finally puts an end to the iconic two-decade product line. The story of Apple’s comeback has been told time and time again, to the point of becoming mythologized, but many people forget that Apple was not always the multi-trillion dollar juggernaut it is today. On the brink of bankruptcy in the 1990s, the return of Steve Jobs and the launch of the colourful iMac G3 helped stabilize the company, but Apple was very much still a niche player in the broader consumer electronic market.
Enter the original iPod, a chunky white slab of glass, plastic, and stainless steel, pulled out of Steve Job’s pocket in ceremonious fashion in October of 2001. It fully revived Apple and cemented its products’ place in people’s pockets - not just their desks.
The iPod was nothing short of a phenomenon in design, fashion and function - “1000 songs in your pocket” and the white earbud donning silhouettes on bright coloured backgrounds became one of the most iconic ad campaign of all time. Apple went from selling 400,000 units the year after launch to over 51 million in 2007 (the same year Apple announced its next big thing: the iPhone).
The iPod introduced an entire generation of people to Apple and the Macintosh, who had previously been in the universe of boring beige and black PCs. Notably, the iPod also brought a dizzying array of product line extensions and innovation in design. In its two decades of existence, I count 6 versions of the iPod Classic, 2 generations of the Mini, 7 generations of the nano, 4 generations of Shuffle, and 7 generations of iPod touch, all with different sizes, materials, colours, storage increases and cheaper variations; contrast that to the iPhone which has increased in cost and basically stabilized in design. Heck, the square 6th generation iPod nano arguably was a precursor to the Apple Watch design that more than 100 million people wear today!
Having a record collection in our pocket also changed the way we listened to music. While not available at launch, the iTunes Store launched quickly thereafter, and saved the record companies from piracy by breaking up the traditional album business model and allowing customers to purchase individual songs for $0.99/song. Now, we have easy access to millions of songs, on-demand, for dollars a month.
Perhaps the reason why I and others have had such an emotional reaction to the news of the iPod officially ending is the nostalgia it evokes. Everyone I know has an “iPod memory” and if you grew up in the 2000s the word “iPod” is synonymous with music.
My first iPod and my first Apple product was the original white iPod nano. Try to imagine 9-year-old Ben’s emotional response to waking up on Christmas morning in 2005 and unwrapping the device I just saw Steve Jobs pull out of not his pocket, but the small little pocket within a pocket (!!!). Arguably, this first Apple device propelled me down the creative and marketing path I pursue today, shaping my interests, hobbies, and career, to date. I’m not sure where I would be without it, and I continue to be fascinated hearing stories every day from Apple users about how various products and services have changed their lives in different ways.
I have such fond memories of burning all of my dad’s classic rock CD collection onto iTunes and desperately trying to decide what 1,000 songs would make the cut to sync to my iPod. I remember the hours I spent sharing my white earbuds with my elementary school neighbour on our bus rides to school. I even remember the hours I spent playing early iPod video games like brick-breaker and parachute (now that’s a major throwback).
So while the music lives on in the form of the iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and HomePod, through Spotify or Apple Music, the loss of the iPod is an official sign of the end of simpler times - when we actually owned our own music and had a specific device for a specific task. So let’s pour one out for the iPod; the device that laid the groundwork and momentum for the iPhone, sparked many careers in tech, and spawned appreciation for Apple products by millions of people…
Some More iPod Fun Facts:
*Official nerd alert… I could probably make a list of 20 interesting facts about the iPod (did you know the original went from prototype to finished product in 10 months… what?!?!) but here are some interesting facts that I think affect most people:
An iPhone with a click wheel?
Without the iPod we probably wouldn’t have the iPhone today. This is true both from a business perspective (as mentioned, Apple wasn’t exactly thriving pre-iPod) but also a hardware perspective. The initial concept for the iPhone was to add a phone to the classic iPod click-wheel design. Apple’s engineering team quickly realized they were basically making a new rotary phone, and abandoned the idea for a new, all-screen, touch device… and as they say, the rest is history.
Where does the word “Podcast” originate?
Over 38% of adults have listened to a podcast within the past month, but not many people know that without the iPod, podcasts wouldn’t be a thing, or at least wouldn’t be called “podcasts”! The word “podcast” was coined by journalist Ben Hammersley in 2004 as a combination of “iPod” and “broadcast”, and launched a new genre of amateur radio.
Straight out of the box
It’s now commonplace to unbox a new device and immediately be able to turn it on, but before the iPod, consumer electronics needed to be charged out of the box. With the iPod, Steve Jobs had the assembly factories test each iPod longer and thus be able to include a longer charge, so eager consumers could turn on their new devices upon opening.
That’s a wrap folks! Hope you all have a great weekend, and feel free to share your fondest iPod memory below.
I did not know that about podcasts - cool!