Apple i Pod: The Goliath of Tiny MP3 Players
The Apple i Pod is one of the most successful innovations ever released. It wasn't the first mp3 player on the market, and won't be the last.
Nonetheless the iPod has had more impact than any product
introduced since Apple Computer's founding in 1976.
The first iPod was introduced in October 2001. The second,
third and fourth generations came out in 2002, 2003 and 2004, along
with the Photo and U2 Special Edition versions. The
slightly smaller iPod Mini debuted in January 2004. Both the
iPod and iPod Mini feature micro-drive memories. The largest of these tiny hard drives will
hold 60GB, or up to 10,000 songs.
The pack-of-gum
sized iPod Shuffle was unveiled in January 2005. The Shuffle was Apple's first solid-state
flash memory mp3 player, with up to 1GB of storage - enough for up to 240
songs. Just in case this wasn't enough, in September Apple introduced the iPod
Nano. With up to 4GB of flash memory, the Nano will play more than 65 hours of
no-skip music.
Sales Mushroom in Four Short Years
By mid-2005 more than 15 million iPods had been sold, and year over year
sales were up more than 600%. In April 2003 Apple opened its online iTunes Music
Store. In spite of the fact that downloaded songs can only be played on iPods,
more than 500 million tunes were sold in the first two years.
An entire industry of iPod accessories adds to the mp3 phenomenon. Besides
Apple, dozens of other companies offer an incredible array of player add-ons.
Plug-in devices allow us to listen to music saved on our player through a home
stereo, car radio, or even powerful portable speaker units. Just about anything
imaginable is available, including designer carrying cases, high-tech
headphones, Bluetooth wireless, multi-purpose docking stations and much more.
Now accounting for nearly 40% of revenues, Apple must be very happy with the
iPod line.
For more portable music player information see
How Do MP3
Players Work.
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