When septuagenarian comedian Steve Martin makes a TV show about them you know podcasts are a fully established part of the zeitgeist.įor a decade, the iPod and its many facets captured the public's imagination - the often-parodied, silhouetted iPod ads were seemingly everywhere - but the device's popularity was constantly tested, with the biggest threat coming from within Apple. We also wouldn't have podcasts without the iPod - it's in the name - and it's an understatement to say that the format is raging right now. ![]() ![]() IPod docks like the Bose SoundDock paved the way for today's Bluetooth speakers. Read more: 'Whoa whoa': iPod's inventor looks back on Apple's 'really big risks' It's good to be the king Nowadays, Fadell likens his iPod to a time capsule that he likes to visit from time to time: "You kind of jack in and you're like, 'I'm just right back to early 2000s music and the music before that.'" It could also play people's carefully pirated curated MP3 collections. This was a portable music player with a 5GB hard drive, an easier way to load and buy songs, and the memorable tagline of "1,000 songs in your pocket." Apple was able to offer a portable music device - a physical object like the Walkman and the turntable before it - that combined with its digital iTunes platform. 23, 2001, barely a month after the events of Sept. The first MP3 players - including the Rio PMP300 - preceded the iPod by three years, but back then MP3 was a mostly illegal and highly litigable format.įadell and his colleagues labored to create the iPod, which was unveiled on Oct. ![]() The iPod soon became so ubiquitous it's easy to forget that Apple didn't actually invent the digital music player. Walkman and, as fate would have it, was recruited by Steve Jobs 20 years later to craft what would be its digital replacement. "A lot of people still remember those iPod days," Fadell told CNET in an interview. Tony Fadell, the former Apple executive who designed and built the iPod, was in a reflective mood as the music player's 20th anniversary approached. Nostalgia is an emotion that keeps coming up when people talk about the iPod, but as any neuroscientist will tell you it's because music and memory are intrinsically linked. But you can still buy an iPod Touch on Apple's website (you need to dig for it at the bottom of the home page), a testament to its remarkable longevity in an industry where last year's gadget is quickly forgotten. The iPod has evolved and radically changed over time: It's now an iPhone without the cellular radio. But the device that jump-started Apple's modern fortunes is still on sale after 20 years.Īfter its release in 2001, the iPod, helped along by the iTunes music store, became one of the most iconic gadgets of all time, spawning a host of imitators and legitimizing the market of MP3 players that it dominated. Yet while Apple's fortunes are still on the rise, the iPod's light has dimmed and the iPhone commands the lion's share of attention. Were synonymous - entities that were constantly morphing and shaping, rather than reacting to, the whims of users. We're rerunning it today following the news that the iPod is finally being put out to pasture. Editor's note, May 11, 2022: This commentary originally ran in October 2021 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the iPod.
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