The Times: The iPod's appeal
By David Rowan
IT weighs less than two CDs, yet fits 10,000 songs inside your pocket. Fashion houses are designing accessories for it, directors are including it in plot lines, and word of mouth is making it the coolest Christmas gadget. The iPod may be little more than a portable hard-disk storage device, but it is revolutionising the way we listen to music.
Not since Sony launched its Walkman in 1979 has a portable music player become such a cult consumer object. The iPod was not the first digital music player to use the MP3 format when Apple launched it two years ago, but it is the only one to have become a cultural icon. Small, light and easy to use, it has taught non-technical audiences that music need not originate in a shop-bought physical package to be enjoyed on the move; now anyone can enjoy a digitised personal music library.
In the past year Apple has sold almost 1.5 million iPods. With prices starting at £249, it is one of its most profitable products. Its success is due partly to the stylish design, but what makes it such a breakthrough gadget, with dozens of its own fan websites, is its functionality. For geeks, the buzz lies in the ultra-fast FireWire connection for transferring tracks from a computer, or the 40GB maximum storage capacity. The rest of us need know only that it makes it easy to live a digital lifestyle. The iPod is also an alarm clock, a games console and, with the right attachments, a voice recorder or FM radio. But mostly it is about the music. Through Apple's iTunes music download store, owners (not yet those in Britain) can easily, and legally, download any of half a million songs for about 60p each.
(The Times, December 10 2003)
IT weighs less than two CDs, yet fits 10,000 songs inside your pocket. Fashion houses are designing accessories for it, directors are including it in plot lines, and word of mouth is making it the coolest Christmas gadget. The iPod may be little more than a portable hard-disk storage device, but it is revolutionising the way we listen to music.
Not since Sony launched its Walkman in 1979 has a portable music player become such a cult consumer object. The iPod was not the first digital music player to use the MP3 format when Apple launched it two years ago, but it is the only one to have become a cultural icon. Small, light and easy to use, it has taught non-technical audiences that music need not originate in a shop-bought physical package to be enjoyed on the move; now anyone can enjoy a digitised personal music library.
In the past year Apple has sold almost 1.5 million iPods. With prices starting at £249, it is one of its most profitable products. Its success is due partly to the stylish design, but what makes it such a breakthrough gadget, with dozens of its own fan websites, is its functionality. For geeks, the buzz lies in the ultra-fast FireWire connection for transferring tracks from a computer, or the 40GB maximum storage capacity. The rest of us need know only that it makes it easy to live a digital lifestyle. The iPod is also an alarm clock, a games console and, with the right attachments, a voice recorder or FM radio. But mostly it is about the music. Through Apple's iTunes music download store, owners (not yet those in Britain) can easily, and legally, download any of half a million songs for about 60p each.
(The Times, December 10 2003)
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