Article: The iPod: Cheers to 5 Years

Where were you five years ago? Chances are, you were probably sitting at your iMac DV or iBook G3 wondering what was so great about a newfangled gadget known as the iPod. Sure, it could hold almost all the music you had at the time and used FireWire, but it was somewhat bulkier than other MP3 players, and was only available for Mac users. Although there was nothing wrong with the second reason, nobody thought the iPod would sell that well.

Five years later, the iPod has become a juggernaut of a consumer device, almost getting to the point where some call any digital audio player an iPod. One product line became two, and then two became three. Today there’s an iPod for everyone’s budget and comes in a few different sizes. What was a small monochrome screen has become a just-a-little-less-small color screen. Audio recording, photo viewing, video playback, and various games have been added. It’s safe to say that the iPod is hardly a failure.

Let’s not forget the iPod’s influence on pop culture and the Mac Web. You can’t go anywhere without seeing some sort of iPod reference or iPod parody. Sites like this and others would have fewer posts, just because the iPod has created its own industry of accessories and needs someone to talk about how it fits into our lives.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that even though the iPod is “just a peripheral”, it has become an integral part of our lives, might have ensured Apple did not have a repeat of the mid-1990s, and proved that Apple can have a market share of more than 5% in something. We’re glad that this cool little gadget has lasted this long, and can’t wait to see what’s next. Here’s to another 5 years!

If you want, share your favorite iPod story in the comments below.