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I got my first Mac in 1995 (Performa 5200CD). Obvious from its name, it had a built in CD-ROM drive. I had the internet throughout the rest of the 90’s, diali

I got my first Mac in 1995 (Performa 5200CD). Obvious from its name, it had a built in CD-ROM drive. I had the internet throughout the rest of the 90’s, dialing up via a series of external modems. 14.4, 28.8, 33.6, and eventually a 56k modem. I downloaded MP3s and played them with SoundJam MP (which Apple bought and reskinned as iTunes). That computer was so slow (75MHz PowerPC 603) that it took nearly all of its resources to play an MP3. However, my next computer was a B&W Power Mac G3 (released in 1999) running at 400 MHz. The difference was night and day, way more than the 5 times implied by the clock speed. Around that time I also got cable Internet (6Mbit) which was far faster than 56K dialup (yes, more than 100X faster). By the time the iPod came out I had more music than could even fit on the 5GB hard drive. I waited till the 3rd gen and got the 40GB model. I honestly don’t think my experience was atypical of computer enthusiasts at the time (the type of people who read Slashdot and later HN). It was only grandmas who bought a Pentium 120 in the mid 90’s and hung onto it for decades.

derefr 4y ago
To be clear, my point was that consumer electronics — like the iPod — were and are typically targeted at "everyone", not "computer enthusiasts" (which would be far too few people to be worth the CapEx of hardware product development); and that, for every one computer enthusiast on Earth, there are 100 grandmas (and other similar demographics.) (Professional electronics, on the other hand, could make all sorts of demands and assume a very specific niche audience, because they were incredibly high-margin. There used to be a big difference between professional vs consumer electronics in terms of not just what parts they used, but what connectivity standards they could assume.) > It was only grandmas who bought a Pentium 120 in the mid 90’s and hung onto it for decades. And, uh, you know... poor people. Blue-collar poor people, who don't care much about computing. But who would really would like to listen to some music as they take the bus to work. As I said in my original post, Apple was doing something very exceptional within the space of consumer electronics, by selling a consumer device (not a professional device!) that actually assumed a niche market (computer enthusiasts, who had thus purchased a recent Mac) rather than being "for everyone."
- chongli 4y ago
  The original iPod was a Mac-only device. Anyone who bought it expecting it to work on their Windows computer, whether it was brand new or Pentium 120-vintage, would've quickly discovered the incompatibility and returned it to the store. Moreover, the initial price for a first gen iPod was $399 ($672 US in 2023 money). Not something I would expect to be affordable to a person struggling along with a 6-year-old computer (Pentium 120 came out in 1995). For a device that only played music and only worked with FireWire-equipped Macs, the original iPod was not an "everyone" device, it was a luxury product for music enthusiasts.

derefr 4y ago

To be clear, my point was that consumer electronics — like the iPod — were and are typically targeted at "everyone", not "computer enthusiasts" (which would be far too few people to be worth the CapEx of hardware product development); and that, for every one computer enthusiast on Earth, there are 100 grandmas (and other similar demographics.) (Professional electronics, on the other hand, could make all sorts of demands and assume a very specific niche audience, because they were incredibly high-margin. There used to be a big difference between professional vs consumer electronics in terms of not just what parts they used, but what connectivity standards they could assume.) > It was only grandmas who bought a Pentium 120 in the mid 90’s and hung onto it for decades. And, uh, you know... poor people. Blue-collar poor people, who don't care much about computing. But who would really would like to listen to some music as they take the bus to work. As I said in my original post, Apple was doing something very exceptional within the space of consumer electronics, by selling a consumer device (not a professional device!) that actually assumed a niche market (computer enthusiasts, who had thus purchased a recent Mac) rather than being "for everyone."

chongli 4y ago
The original iPod was a Mac-only device. Anyone who bought it expecting it to work on their Windows computer, whether it was brand new or Pentium 120-vintage, would've quickly discovered the incompatibility and returned it to the store. Moreover, the initial price for a first gen iPod was $399 ($672 US in 2023 money). Not something I would expect to be affordable to a person struggling along with a 6-year-old computer (Pentium 120 came out in 1995). For a device that only played music and only worked with FireWire-equipped Macs, the original iPod was not an "everyone" device, it was a luxury product for music enthusiasts.