Sunday Tribune

The end of ipod, the end of an era

WESLEY DIPHOKO wesley.diphoko@inl.co.za Diphoko is the editor-in-chief of the Fast Company (South Africa) magazine.

“THIS coming Tuesday, Apple invites you to the unveiling of a breakthrough digital device (hint: it’s not a Mac)”. Those were the words written on the invitation to the Apple ipod launch on October 23, 2001.

More than two decades later, on Tuesday May 10 this year, Apple announced the end of production for the Apple ipod. The device had proved to be a real breakthrough digital device not just for (1) Apple but for (2) the music and (3) the technology world.

Apple

For the 25 years since Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak had founded Apple, the personal computer had been the centrepiece of the digital revolution. Now experts were predicting that its central role was ending.

Aveteran tech journalist wrote that “it matured into something boring”.

It was during this period that Apple launched a product that became the ipod.

Jobs told reporters that “if anybody was ever wondering why Apple is on the earth, I would hold up this as a good example”.

The ipod became the essence of everything Apple was destined to be, according to Walter Issacson – poetry connected to engineering, arts, and creativity intersecting with technology, and design that was bold and simple.

The ipod turned Apple from a nearly bankrupt company to an eventual $3 trillion behemoth.

After 22 years since the product was designed and manufactured, its chief architect, Tony Fadell, speaking at the Computer History Museum said: “Apple ipod is the only reason why Apple is the company it is today.”

The device inspired the creation of the iphone. It also saved the music industry from piracy.

Music

Before the ipod, the music industry was plagued by a bestiary of piracy services – Napster, Grokster, Gnutella, Kazaa – that enabled people to get songs for free. Partly as a result, legal sales of CDS were down 9% in 2002.

It was a tough time for music executives which led to them meeting with Jobs, and the rest is history.

The itunes store sold a million songs in the first six days after it was introduced in April 2003, the store went on to sell 70 million songs in its first year.

The ipod was instrumental in enabling Apple to sell music and thereby make money for the music industry.

The device helped turn Silicon Valley into the epicentre of global capitalism.

Tech industry

The ipod’s most important contribution was its role as a catalyst for the creation of the iphone, which continued to draw on the blend of software and services that made the ipod succeed. The success of itunes, which allowed customers to back up their iphones and put music on the device, was mirrored by the development of the App Store, which allowed people to download and pay for software and services. It started with music through the ipod and all that was applied to other products.

To understand this, you have to take into account the fact that, in the early 2000s, the desktop industry was declining and everything changed with the introduction of products that started with the letter “i” the ipod, iphone, and the ipad.

Everything that came with the products, their capability, and industries they created can be attributed to the ipod.

Today, we have tech companies that are each worth billions of dollars and all that was made possible by the iphone which became possible because the ipod was created.

As the ipod bows out, the technology industry has to take lessons from the creation of the revolutionary product. One of those lessons is that it is not enough to just create a product; the product has to make a difference. It’s safe to say that the ipod made a difference in the music industry, the tech world and our society.

Since then, no tech product has come closer to resembling what Apple created. Who else will create a product so powerful it creates the first trillion-dollar company and transforms not one industry but multiple industries. The end of the ipod marks the end of an era. What will come next?

My reading of the industry tells me that it’s the robot that is under development. For now, we have to learn from the ipod to create the next revolutionary product.

BIZ TECH

en-za

2022-05-15T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-05-15T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://sundaytribune.pressreader.com/article/282157884846676

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