Apple is known for releasing innovative products from time to time. Its innovative products usually revolutionize industries. The iPod is one of such products that shook the music industry. Under the helm of Steve Jobs and the famous Tony Fadell (aka father of iPod), the company went head to head with the Japanese music devices king Sony.
The Cupertino company Apple was quick to realize the importance of making a compact music device that people could carry with themselves and something that would easily fit in people’s pocket. iPod was released during the “internet boom” and Apple took advantage of that opportunity by relying on an internet store for music.
Behind the scenes
Every Apple fan knows the story of Apple-Toshiba relationship in creating the iPod. Toshiba is famously known for creating the miniscule hard drive for the original iPod which could store a lot of songs. The behind the scenes story has been told multiple times by many former Apple employees, including Tony Fadell, who tweets about it sometimes.
During the iPod era, iTunes turned out to be one of the most popular apps on the Windows PC platform. Initially, iTunes was only available on the Mac but if the company wanted to reach a wider audience with the iPod, it had to ship iTunes for Windows. Tony Fadell once tweeted that, Steve Jobs was adamant about not creating iTunes for Windows but after thorough analysis, it was clear that the company had to do so.
Over the years, Apple has released multiple iPods such as the mini iPod shuffle, the touch-screen iPod Touch, the iPod Classic, and more. However, the only iPod that the company sells now is the iPod Touch at $199.
The future of iPod is grim. People use smartphones for everything: including music. We expect Apple to kill the iPod in the next two years. At present, the iPod is not displayed on the homepage of Apple’s website; it can be found by going into the Music section.
