I myself don't even remember hearing about the iPod back in 2001. But now I can't live without mine.
Or iTunes, either. In fact, yesterday I put my 10,000th song on iTunes - it was actually a podcast, KCRW's Left, Right & Center.
Anyway, in honor of five years that really have changed the way people listen to music, I went to MacRumors.com and found the comment section for October 23, 2001. You know, the talkback section where every day mac fans can post what they're thinking? Well, here are some examples of what they were saying five years ago today:
1. All that hype for an MP3 player? Break-thru digital device? The Reality Distiortion Field is starting to warp Steve's mind if he thinks for one second that this thing is gonna take off.
2. There are already two products similar to this on the market. The Nomad Jukebox and the Archos Jukebox which can come with a 20 gig HD. The iPod is obviously alot cooler and has firewire, but it is far from revolutionary. I for one am disappointed and think that apple is making a mistake by trying to get into this market.
3. Not exactly "revolutionary". With the economy in its current state, You'll be able to pick up MP3 players for peanuts soon. The Archos Jukebox does the same thing and it's not blowing off the shelves either. $399 is just too much for an MP3 jukebox. Sorry Steve, this isn't it...
4. Not revolutionary. Big capacity mp3 players already exist. With Creative Labs' entrance into the firewire arena, future nomads will have similar specs and better prices.
A bad fit. This product is outside Apple's core competancy - computing devices. When many are calling for a pda, they release an MP3 player.
5. Doesn't a Mac with a CDR undermine the need for most of this? All that's left is the number of songs you can play and the ability to listen to all of them with headphones anywhere. Do I really need ALL my songs ALL the time?
uhm, no.
Won't last. Another Cube.
6. The only thing breakthrough may be the narrowness of this nich market.
Yeah, apparently they all thought Apple was going to release a new PDA, like a Palm Pilot. Rememeber when people used to have those, way back in the day? Good thing Apple didn't make one of those dinosaurs.
A few people got it right, though:
1. are they going to make it accessible to PC along with Itunes 2 ? This would be a sweet revenge from apple:
PC people bying apple products ......
Then it would be a Breakthrough in the digital era.....
I hope so ....
2. Mp3 commoditized? No future? Excuse me, but if there's one thing even Apple's cricits agree on, is that if you want an mp3 player, now there's only one way to go. Boy I sure would love a Korean mp3 player with it's clumsy user interface and it's amazing ability to store 24 songs, which take 5 minutes to get on the damn thing. Woohoo! Open your eyes. What you are seeing is the future of portable musical devices.
And that, my friends, was another trip in the ol' patented "Newlywed in Dubai" Wayback Machine.
