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iPod's Two-Year Anniversary - The Guts of a New Machine (New York Times Magazine)
From: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Sun, 30 Nov 2003 19:11:17 -0500
Delivered-To: dfarber+ () ux13 sp cs cmu edu Date: Mon, 01 Dec 2003 01:04:40 +0100 The Guts of a New Machine By ROB WALKERFrom: the terminal of Geoff Goodfellow <geoff () iconia com> Subject: iPod's Two-Year Anniversary - The Guts of a New Machine (New York Times Magazine) To: Dave E-mail Pamphleteer Farber <dave () farber net> Published: November 30, 2003 Two years ago this month, Apple Computer released a small, sleek-looking device it called the iPod. A digital music player, it weighed just 6.5 ounces and held about 1,000 songs. There were small MP3 players around at the time, and there were players that could hold a lot of music. But if the crucial equation is ''largest number of songs'' divided by ''smallest physical space,'' the iPod seemed untouchable. And yet the initial reaction was mixed: the thing cost $400, so much more than existing digital players that it prompted one online skeptic to suggest that the name might be an acronym for ''Idiots Price Our Devices.'' This line of complaint called to mind the Newton, Apple's pen-based personal organizer that was ahead of its time but carried a bloated price tag to its doom. Since then, however, about 1.4 million iPods have been sold. (It has been updated twice and now comes in three versions, all of which improved on the original's songs-per-space ratio, and are priced at $300, $400 and $500, the most expensive holding 10,000 songs.) For the months of July and August, the iPod claimed the No. 1 spot in the MP3 player market both in terms of unit share (31 percent) and revenue share (56 percent), by Apple's reckoning. It is now Apple's highest-volume product. ''It's something that's as big a brand to Apple as the Mac,'' is how Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, puts it. ''And that's a pretty big deal.'' Of course, as anyone who knows the basic outline of Apple's history is aware, there is no guarantee that today's innovation leader will not be copycatted and undersold into tomorrow's niche player. Apple's recent and highly publicized move to make the iPod and its related software, iTunes, available to users of Windows-based computers is widely seen as a sign that the company is trying to avoid that fate this time around. But it may happen anyway. The history of innovation is the history of innovation being imitated, iterated and often overtaken. --snip-- http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/30/magazine/30IPOD.html?pagewanted=all =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- geoff.goodfellow () iconia com * Prague - CZ * telephone +420 603 706 558 "success is getting what you want & happiness is wanting what you get" http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/01/biztech/articles/17drop.html http://blogging.cz ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as interesting-people () lists elistx com To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
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- iPod's Two-Year Anniversary - The Guts of a New Machine (New York Times Magazine) Dave Farber (Nov 30)