>The iPod was nice because of the storage, but competitors (like Zune) had more storage and were cheaper. It took a while for iPod to get "good" and gain adopti

>The iPod was nice because of the storage, but competitors (like Zune) had more storage and were cheaper. It took a while for iPod to get "good" and gain adoption. You aren't remembering the iPod years very well at all. The Zune came out 5 years after the iPod. The iPod was already dominant by the time it came out (had at least 70% market share and was selling millions of units). The early competitors were MP3 CD players and the Creative Nomad. The iPod outclassed every single one of them. What was suppressing early sales of the iPod was the size, the lack of Windows compatibility, and the ability of common people to buy music for it. It was quite chonky in Gens 1 and 2 and even Gen 3 was a bit too large for most people. So when the iPod mini came out sales absolutely took off. Second, was the lack of Windows syncing. That came in 2002 with Musicmatch, and then was made vastly better in 2003 with the release of iTunes for Windows. And with the release of iTunes for Windows people also had a way of buying songs for the device.