Apple Ipods – A love Story of Man, technology and Machine

Amidst the chaos surrounding the world post September 11 2001, something strange happened in the world of technology. It was probably the very first time that computers, technology and music had combined to produce a product that would soon be a “want –all” for every single music lover throught the world.Yes,it was the year in which Apple released what is now probably it flagship product-“IPOD”.It was the brainchild of Apple CEO Steve Jobs who at that time specialized in making softwares for software for the growing market of digital devices being purchased by consumers worldwide. Though digital cameras,camcoders had established mainstream markets at that time,portable MP3 were too big, chunky and unfashionable and had yet to establish a proper niche at that time. It was then that Apple embarked on a financially profitable journey towards making and marketing the Ipod’s,which would soon to take the music world by storm and create an impact, unheard of since the introduction of the CD- drive by Sony in the late 80’s.

The first generation Ipod’s were released out in October 2001 and were based on an internal harddisk.It had a capacity of 5 Gb with a mechanical scroll wheel. Though it was limited to be used on only Mac’s and couldn’t be used on Windows bases system without third party tools, it soon became an instant hit with its easy user interface and excellent sound quality which would be the feature of all Ipod’s released since then. The Apple iPod has always received high honors when it came to its design. And with every update, the iPod endured a stricter diet-regime, thus making the overall footprint thinner and smaller. Music could be transferred to a Mac via Itunes software and it could be charged via a firewire connector It could play play MP3, AAC/M4A, Protected AAC, AIFF, Audible audiobook, and Apple Lossless audio file formats. In a year’s time two more generations of Ipod’s had been released by Apple with increased storage capacity(40GB for 3^rd generation) and support for Windows based operating systems with the addition of Musicmatch software which was compatible with Windows. In late 2004,Apple released its 5^th generation of Ipods which featured a click wheel as well video playback. The latest version of Apple Ipods are it’s touchscreen models which are as much a style statement for today’s youth as much as a music player. In all, six generations of Apple Ipod Classic have been released with three Ipod Nano models, the latest of which features video playback and two smaller models called Ipod Shuffle.

One of Ipod’s biggest achievements would be in kickstarting the online musical market.Users can buy songs ,clips and serials from Apple’s online Itunes store for a price and play them on their Ipod’s .Other online stores are supported provided they don’t have DRM legalities.

Though Ipods have dominated the market share of portable Mp3 players with over 70% of the market share, it has not been with their fair share of trouble. Users and reviewers were critical of its poor battery life, some of which even went up to the extent of filing consumer lawsuits against Apple resulting in Apple giving battery replacements for a nominal price.In addition,though the sound quality of the Ipod’s were excellent, they were often criticized for showing distortion during Bass playback. To its credit though, Apple has worked extensively on these drawbacks and the latest generations of Ipod nano’s,touch and shuffle show a marked improvement in battery performance and bass playback.

Six years from the first generation of Apple Ipod’s,Ipod’s have grown from strength to strength and with its latest models of touch screen Ipod’s and video nano’s,Apple looks well set to stay put on its throne as the king of portable music.