5 ms·

I was around for the mp3 "revolution", so I'll add to the author's discussion point about the ipod. The thousand-songs-in-your-pocket sales pitch was more than

I was around for the mp3 "revolution", so I'll add to the author's discussion point about the ipod. The thousand-songs-in-your-pocket sales pitch was more than lifestyle/concept -- it was an actual feature. All of the other players at the time were big & bulky because the components they used for storage & battery required the corresponding form factor. The "pocket" part of the sales pitch was exactly that: the ipod physically fit in your pocket because the components were smaller and more integrated. In the stage demoes by Jobs, he shoves the ipod into his jeans. To the author's point about "you pay for the problem it solves, or the needs/wants it fulfills", the implied need here was that you need this to be small and out-of-the-way -- not a miniature home-stereo attached to your belt. And not to pick on the author, but I don't find the ipod reference very applicable to the case of communicating with your consulting clients. Sure, you have to speak to your audience -- but direct 1:1 contact with a handful of stakeholders is hella different from millions of consumers who never asked you for a specific set of features and a timeline.

plorkyeran 3y ago
It wasn’t just that it physically fit in your pocket - it also worked in your pocket. I had pants at the time which I could fit a portable CD player in, but walking around without the music skipping required carefully holding it steady. The earlier non-flash mp3 players tended to have HDDs that similarly weren’t great with motion while in use.
throwaway3655 3y ago
The reality distortion field is strong. An mp3 player was in every kid's jeans pocket before the ipod was even announced.[0] Its innovation was costing twice as much and having white earphones, which made it suitable as a wealth-signaling fashion accessory. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_media_player#The_MP3_standard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_media_player#The_MP3_...
- jroseattle 3y ago
  True, except for the every-kid part. The market was pretty fragmented back then. Nonetheless, I was referring to the sales pitch. And Jobs never let facts get in the way of a good story. :-)
- morelisp 3y ago
  First, not nearly every kid. When the iPod came out my PMP-300 was still relatively novel; much more common was MP3 CD players, which skipped like hell even if you could put them in your pocket. The market was also divided in a way that's hard to imagine today, something like an iFP or PMP was like taking a single tape/CD with you. But the Jukebox (the infamous Nomad) and some other lines were really "put all your music here; this now is your music collection." The iPod was the first pocket-sized player that supported this mode. (And the iPod Shuffle probably the last in the line of the former style.)
- hbn 3y ago
  Didn't the iPod blow all of the other MP3 players out of the water in storage capacity cause Apple got some of the first access to tiny HDD's while everything else was using flash storage?
  - tiltowait 3y ago
    It (in)famously had "less space than a Nomad", but from my >20-year-old anecdotal experience, everyone I knew then had Diamondback Rios and the likes with maybe 64MB of CF storage, as you said.
- yamazakiwi 3y ago
  Every kid did not have an mp3 player. I saw a wide variety of music players. No single product came close to market domination until the ipod. Kid's were all using different products like mini-disc players, cd players, mp3 players, walkmans, it was all over the place.
  - pessimizer 3y ago
    I disagree. By then, every kid had an mp3 player. Every other choice was big and clunky.
    - yamazakiwi 3y ago
      It could be location based but you are wrong for most areas on planet earth. Many kids went from cd player to ipod because mp3 players were too expensive as a replacement for something you had that already solution for. Convincing your parents you needed more songs was laughable at the time. If anything, more children got mp3 players AFTER the iPod became popular. The excuse for a better product was more palatable due to the iPod's popularity.
      - throwaway3655 3y ago
        [dead]
        yamazakiwi 3y ago
        I meant to imply that mp3 players were too expensive "at the time", compared to a cd player. I was not saying other mp3 players were more expensive than ipods. I could have been more clear there. Mp3 Players were more expensive than CD Players thus adoption was slow in the beginning, but the popularity of the ipod changed the mindset surrounding digital media players in general. Once the ipod exploded in popularity many more mp3 players were sold to those who couldn't afford apple prices. The previous poster was saying that EVERY kid had an mp3 player before ipods blew up where the opposite is true.
- pessimizer 3y ago
  Yes. This entire thread is bizarre. The iPod, when it was introduced, was dollar for dollar easily the worst mp3 player on the market. It won because it was massively marketed, people found it pretty, it was tied in with Apple's other products and a marketplace, and the same people who wanted a candy-colored computer (and a candy-colored New Volkswagen Beetle that matched it) wanted the thing in the billboards with the MTV silhouette dancing against a brightly colored background. I'd say that their innovation was that round touch slider thingie that added nothing to the functionality but confusion, but was fun to use.
- rkho 3y ago
  > An mp3 player was in every kid's jeans pocket before the ipod was even announced This is a strange statement. I grew up in the Bay Area and a CD player was in my hands/in the back pocket of my backpack for the longest time. It wasn't until the second iPod Mini that I even knew what an iPod was.
m_0x 3y ago
> I was around for the mp3 "revolution", so I'll add to the author's discussion point about the ipod. There won't be an agreement here because it's just semantics. The opposite sounds very true as well. Let's reverse it. "The thousand-songs-in-your-pocket sales pitch was more than a feature-- it was a lifestyle/concept." It sounds.... exactly the same to me. Both words (lifestyle vs feature) have the exact same impact if it's the final word.

plorkyeran 3y ago

It wasn’t just that it physically fit in your pocket - it also worked in your pocket. I had pants at the time which I could fit a portable CD player in, but walking around without the music skipping required carefully holding it steady. The earlier non-flash mp3 players tended to have HDDs that similarly weren’t great with motion while in use.

throwaway3655 3y ago

The reality distortion field is strong. An mp3 player was in every kid's jeans pocket before the ipod was even announced.[0] Its innovation was costing twice as much and having white earphones, which made it suitable as a wealth-signaling fashion accessory. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_media_player#The_MP3_standard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_media_player#The_MP3_...

jroseattle 3y ago
True, except for the every-kid part. The market was pretty fragmented back then. Nonetheless, I was referring to the sales pitch. And Jobs never let facts get in the way of a good story. :-)
morelisp 3y ago
First, not nearly every kid. When the iPod came out my PMP-300 was still relatively novel; much more common was MP3 CD players, which skipped like hell even if you could put them in your pocket. The market was also divided in a way that's hard to imagine today, something like an iFP or PMP was like taking a single tape/CD with you. But the Jukebox (the infamous Nomad) and some other lines were really "put all your music here; this now is your music collection." The iPod was the first pocket-sized player that supported this mode. (And the iPod Shuffle probably the last in the line of the former style.)
hbn 3y ago
Didn't the iPod blow all of the other MP3 players out of the water in storage capacity cause Apple got some of the first access to tiny HDD's while everything else was using flash storage?
- tiltowait 3y ago
  It (in)famously had "less space than a Nomad", but from my >20-year-old anecdotal experience, everyone I knew then had Diamondback Rios and the likes with maybe 64MB of CF storage, as you said.
yamazakiwi 3y ago
Every kid did not have an mp3 player. I saw a wide variety of music players. No single product came close to market domination until the ipod. Kid's were all using different products like mini-disc players, cd players, mp3 players, walkmans, it was all over the place.
- pessimizer 3y ago
  I disagree. By then, every kid had an mp3 player. Every other choice was big and clunky.
  - yamazakiwi 3y ago
    It could be location based but you are wrong for most areas on planet earth. Many kids went from cd player to ipod because mp3 players were too expensive as a replacement for something you had that already solution for. Convincing your parents you needed more songs was laughable at the time. If anything, more children got mp3 players AFTER the iPod became popular. The excuse for a better product was more palatable due to the iPod's popularity.
    - throwaway3655 3y ago
      [dead]
      - yamazakiwi 3y ago
        I meant to imply that mp3 players were too expensive "at the time", compared to a cd player. I was not saying other mp3 players were more expensive than ipods. I could have been more clear there. Mp3 Players were more expensive than CD Players thus adoption was slow in the beginning, but the popularity of the ipod changed the mindset surrounding digital media players in general. Once the ipod exploded in popularity many more mp3 players were sold to those who couldn't afford apple prices. The previous poster was saying that EVERY kid had an mp3 player before ipods blew up where the opposite is true.
pessimizer 3y ago
Yes. This entire thread is bizarre. The iPod, when it was introduced, was dollar for dollar easily the worst mp3 player on the market. It won because it was massively marketed, people found it pretty, it was tied in with Apple's other products and a marketplace, and the same people who wanted a candy-colored computer (and a candy-colored New Volkswagen Beetle that matched it) wanted the thing in the billboards with the MTV silhouette dancing against a brightly colored background. I'd say that their innovation was that round touch slider thingie that added nothing to the functionality but confusion, but was fun to use.
rkho 3y ago
> An mp3 player was in every kid's jeans pocket before the ipod was even announced This is a strange statement. I grew up in the Bay Area and a CD player was in my hands/in the back pocket of my backpack for the longest time. It wasn't until the second iPod Mini that I even knew what an iPod was.

m_0x 3y ago

> I was around for the mp3 "revolution", so I'll add to the author's discussion point about the ipod. There won't be an agreement here because it's just semantics. The opposite sounds very true as well. Let's reverse it. "The thousand-songs-in-your-pocket sales pitch was more than a feature-- it was a lifestyle/concept." It sounds.... exactly the same to me. Both words (lifestyle vs feature) have the exact same impact if it's the final word.