iPod a history – iPod generation 1 and 2

During development phase of the iPod, Steve Jobs was directly involved in the whole process. He was especially interested in sound quality and design. Development was full of hurdles they had to overcome. The biggest one coming just three months before iPod had to be shipped to the stores. Just when the factories were being set up problem with battery life was discovered. Power management was so bad that battery was drained in about three hours, even when the power was turned off. It took engineers in development team eight weeks to solve this problem.

Menu was revolutionary at that time. Competition did have the ability to scroll through the menu to look for album and artist, but when you have thousands of songs and you have to click a dozen times to get to the specific song you want, it was frustrating. With the scroll wheel Apple introduced it was possible to get to the desired song in just a few clicks.

Design was extremely important to Jobs. He wanted a simple, but functional product. This preference for simplicity seen in his past projects was carried through to the iPod. With iPod designer Jonathan Ive, they developed a product that marked a decade in consumer product design.

At the end of this process Jobs sent a simple email to the press inviting them to the presentation simply saying: „Hint: It's not a Mac“. On October 23, 2001 Steve Jobs took the center stage to unveil his latest creation. In a his address which resembled more a Hickok movie then a product presentation, dancing around the subject of music and technology, describing that day as a start of a whole new revolution, he took iPod out from his pocket and said: „Here it is right there! This amazing little device holds a thousand songs and goes right in my pocket. “

In a time just after 9/11 and the shutting down of Napster, it was thought that this was the worst time to come out with a new product. Additionally dot-com meltdown had begun that year and Silicon Valley economy was coming apart. With iPod being the frontrunner in digital music players nobody knew how is it going to be received. The $400 price tag and a lack of PC compatibility attributed to the predictions that it will never be widely accepted.

Although it wasn’t least expensive, nor did it have the largest amount of memory, iPods wonderful integration with iTunes and revolutionary design made it at the same time a fashion statement for the celebrities and a must have gadget for the geeks. It wasn't the best mp3 player on the market, but it was an epiphany of being cool. It was so beautiful that everybody wanted one.

iPods popularity is primarily attributed to Mac loyalist that embraced it and spread the word about it. This kind of following has not been achieved by any other brand. This cult like status spread to other industries. In only 2 months 125 000 iPods were sold. MacDaddy did it again. But he didn’t stop the development a few months later a second generation was presented and it confirmed the predecessor’s success.