With iPod’s fifth birthday around the corner (October 23rd), Steve Jobs discusses the MP3 player’s design, cool factor and impact with Newsweek’s Steven Levy:
During the iPod’s development process did you get a sense of how big it would become?
Jobs: The way you can tell that you’re onto something interesting is if everybody who knows about the project wants one themselves, if they can’t wait to go out and open up their own wallets to buy one. That was clearly the case with the iPod. Everybody on the team wanted one.
Other companies had already tried to make a hard disk drive music player. Why did Apple get it right?
Jobs: We had the hardware expertise, the industrial design expertise and the software expertise, including iTunes. One of the biggest insights we have was that we decided not to try to manage your music library on the iPod, but to manage it in iTunes. Other companies tried to do everything on the device itself and made it so complicated that it was useless.
Now people at some labels think that iTunes, with its dominant market share has too much power.
Jobs: We’ve never once gone to them and asked them to lower their prices.
Do you think that it’s fair to the customer that the songs they buy from Apple will only work on iTunes and the iPod?
Jobs: Well, they knew that all along.
Microsoft has announced its new iPod competitor, Zune. It says that this device is all about building communities. Are you worried?
Jobs: In a word, no. I’ve seen the demonstrations on the Internet about how you can find another person using a Zune and give them a song they can play three times. It takes forever. By the time you’ve gone through all that, the girl’s got up and left! You’re much better off to take one of your earbuds out and put it in her ear. Then you’re connected with about two feet of headphone cable.
In the full article, Jobs talks about the the design lesson of the iPod, iPod popularity and coolness, how he got the record labels to sign up, and more here.
Related articles:
Apple announces iPod nano (PRODUCT) RED Special Edition, iTunes (PRODUCT) RED gift card – October 13, 2006
RUMOR: Apple to announce wireless video iPod in ‘very near future’ – October 10, 2006
The Channel Checkers: Apple iPod recommended by over 73% vs. other MP3 players – October 05, 2006
Study reveals Apple continues to gain share in music markets – October 04, 2006
Mossberg: Apple’s new iPod+iTunes are ‘better products at better prices’ – October 04, 2006
Computerworld review: ‘Apple’s new iPods are better than ever’ – September 27, 2006
PC Magazine’s 19th Annual Readers’ Choice Awards for MP3 players: Apple iPod line – September 25, 2006
USA Today reviews new Apple iPod nanos, updated iPods, iTunes 7 (each earns 4 stars out of 4) – September 21, 2006
Time Magazine’s Gadget of the Week: Apple iPod 80GB – September 21, 2006
CNET Editor’s Choice: Apple fifth-gen updated iPod – ‘best, most attractive iPod to date’ – September 20, 2006
Disney’s remarkable 1st week iTunes movies sales should have studios clambering aboard Apple train – September 20, 2006
Disney sells 125,000 movie downloads via Apple’s iTunes Store in first week – September 19, 2006
PC Magazine review: iTunes 7 ‘Apple’s best effort yet’ (4 stars out of 5) – September 15, 2006
CNET Editor’s Pick: Apple’s new 2G iPod nano – ‘sure to be top choice among wide range of users’ – September 14, 2006
Apple debuts new iPod in 30GB and 80GB with Hollywood movies, games and new lower price – September 12, 2006
Apple intros new iPod nano with new aluminum design in five colors and 24-hour battery life – September 12, 2006
Apple unveils new iPod shuffle: world’s smallest digital music player – September 12, 2006
Apple debuts iTunes 7 – September 12, 2006
Microsoft’s Ballmer: Zune device not money loser, wishes Apple’s 30GB iPod was $299 instead of $249 – October 11, 2006
Microsoft’s consumer electronics track record: long string of failures – October 11, 2006
MP3.com founder: ‘Zune will be an expensive failure for Microsoft because consumers aren’t stupid’ – October 06, 2006
Microsoft fails to secure key Zune domains – October 04, 2006
Microsoft rigs Zune with tricky pricing and proprietary money schemes – October 03, 2006
Why Microsoft’s Zune won’t kill Apple’s iPod – October 03, 2006
10 Apple iPod vs. Microsoft Zune myths – October 02, 2006
Analyst: Zune could lead to ‘civil war’ between Microsoft and Windows Media partners – September 29, 2006
Thurrott on Microsoft’s Zune: ‘The makings of a disaster, what the heck are these people thinking?’ – September 29, 2006
Analyst: Microsoft Zune’s as good as dead on arrival – September 28, 2006
Microsoft sets 30GB Zune price at $249.99 – September 28, 2006
How Microsoft’s Zune can kill Apple’s iPod – September 21, 2006
Microsoft’s Zune insanity – September 21, 2006
The Microsoft Zune 1.0 dud – September 20, 2006
Microsoft’s underwhelming Zune a ‘viral DRM’ device – September 18, 2006
SanDisk teams with RealNetworks against new common foe: Microsoft Zune – September 18, 2006
Creative does Apple’s dirty work by immediately attacking Microsoft’s Zune – September 17, 2006
Motley Fool’s Jayson: Microsoft’s ‘just plain ugly’ Zune a meager offering, not an iPod killer – September 15, 2006
What’s in a name? ‘Zune’ a French-Canadian euphemism for penis or vagina – September 15, 2006
Crave at CNET: ‘Microsoft Zune, all the excitement that brown can bring’ – September 15, 2006
Microsoft’s Zune underwhelms – September 15, 2006
Enderle: Microsoft Zune ‘a design mistake’ – September 15, 2006
Microsoft hypocrisy exposed with Zune: What ever happened to ‘choice?’ – September 14, 2006
Analyst: Microsoft Zune with fake scroll wheel ‘hardly an Apple iPod killer’ – September 14, 2006
Analyst: Microsoft Zune won’t spoil Apple’s biggest iPod Christmas ever – September 14, 2006
Microsoft unveils Zune 30GB player, Zune Marketplace; declines to disclose prices – September 14, 2006
Analyst: Microsoft’s Zune an ‘underwhelming’ repackaged Toshiba Gigabeat; no threat to Apple iPod – August 30, 2006
Microsoft confirms brick-like Zune to be made by Toshiba – August 25, 2006
Microsoft Zune is chunky brick made by Toshiba – August 25, 2006
Microsoft to spend hundreds of millions, several years on Zune trying to catch Apple iPod+iTunes – July 27, 2006
Zune: Apple cannot lose. Microsoft cannot win. – July 26, 2006
I still think that Zune is doing the social networking wrong. It’s a good idea, poorly done. Again. Microsoft.
What it should be is an option that is on your iPod that broadcasts whatever you are playing, and then people around you can TUNE in to it with their iPods. Kind of like portable FM broadcasting. Or something. But not using FM, using Bluetooth or WiFi. And if someone likes it, then give them the option of grabbing the file and playing it for 3 times or whatever before it expires.
The whole process that Zune does, the selecting and beaming(squirting as Ballmer calls it) a song is too time consuming. Only hardcore nerds will go through all that work to send something.
DavidO:
“That’s like saying you don’t want to kiss your lover’s lips because everyone has lips. It doesn’t make any sense.”
Jobs gets sensuous. Is this a first? Probably not. Are there similar quotes from the past?
The slogan for the G5 tower, a pro machine for creative people, was simply this:
Pro Create.
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>You’re much better off to take one of your earbuds out and put it in her ear.
Never in a million years would the behemoth have thought about it. They’re focused on squirting – a few seconds of bliss, the sooner the better – while Apple understands that Mac users enjoy the foreplay too. We can go on and on and on and on….
I just thought of a great headline for when the MS player crashes and burns in the marketplace!
“Dark Side of the Zune.”
(You can use that.)
That statement about the general publics computer usage and the argument of downloading directly to a digital player is so wrong.
If you don’t have a computer, how are you going to get music on your mp3 player? How will you directly get music from your cd’s onto it? To think wi-fi is the everything answer is not thought out.
OK, maybe plug a cable from a portable CD players headphone jack to the input of an mp3 device, then upload and manage your music on the mp3 device. I could see that. Circumvent the computer that way, abeit quality may be lower than it already is.
Are people REALLY going to go in search of a wi-fi network to get music onto it? Go to the local Quiznos maybe? Or set up a wi-fi network at home
even though you don’t own a computer? Again, crazy talk. A wi-fi only mp3 player is not practical, unless your city has an all over wi-fi coverage network.
Any irony in the fact that the story is on MSN?
“Let’s face it, the computing using market is a small portion of the overall general public which enjoy’s portable music.”
In a word: Rubbish.
Guess what? Personal computers have become ubiquitous here in America and pretty much anybody who can afford a $149 iPod can probably also afford a $350 Windows PC to get music on it.
Come on. Join us in the 21st Century.
The reason the iPod is joined with the computer is simple. Browsing music to buy is a better experience on a computer with a nice big screen than on an iPod with a 2.5 or 3-inch screen. The idea that the “halo effect” is planned is rediculous–especially when you figure that the iPod, iTunes, and the iTunes Music Store were Mac-only for the first year or more of their life.
<<Let’s face it, the computing using market is a small portion of the overall general public which enjoy’s portable music.>>
rubbish, the very fact that YouTube is serving up 100 million videos a day should demonstrate that computers are beyond mainstream.
However I forsee a future where you can doc your iPod at a retail store and buy movies and tracks directly with a special iTunes kiosk that can grab your account info from the iPod….then when you get back home…upload the content to the master jukebox. (and Apple would never use the term) “media server” save that for Geeksoft.
Now, this is interesting. Oct. 23 is the 5th anniversary of the iPod. Who knew?
Can anyone say, “special edition FIFTH ANNIVERSARY IPOD?” ! Wide- and touchscreen interface, perhaps??
Mark your calendars, boys and girls. Oct.23 just might be an interesting day.
PS: of course, I was expecting a 30th Anniversary Mac this past summer too: how did that work out for me?
PPS: only Microsoft would conceive of a new way for geeks to interact with girls – FROM ACROSS THE ROOM! – I guess that’s a safe distance… in case they wet themselves.
I’d say there’s a market gap for a bluetooth gizmo. Plug into your iPod, and hand a cheap set of disposable earbuds to a friend. Jam, or share between two iPods.
Or maybe not.
Digital mediums, be it music, photography, videos don’t really have huge advantage over analogue mediums UNLESS you can manipulate, process, edit, organize, slice and dice them and the a PC/Mac is by far the best place to do those things. Sure I can edit my photos on my digital camera but once i’ve done it in iPhoto, why would i want to?
Steve “Smooth Operator” Jobs. Getting the hunnies. Hubba hubba.
Major FUD alert:
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/2006-10-15-music-war_x.htm
“The top consumer complaint at online music service Napster: Songs purchased at Napster won’t play on Apple’s iPod.
It’s not Napster’s fault. Apple’s hugely successful iPod business is built on a closed system. You shop at iTunes Music Store for digital songs and use iTunes software to transfer them effortlessly to the iPod.
The system works great for iPod owners. For others, there’s a chaos of competing formats.
Songs sold at Napster, Rhapsody, Yahoo Music and other online stores are geared to Microsoft-endorsed digital devices, not the iPod. These digital music players from SanDisk, Creative Labs and others can’t easily play songs from iTunes.”
And what about the Microsoft Zune? Does it PlayForSure?
LOL
Job’s comment about sharing earbuds is so right on. Microsoft is so screwed.
iTunes is bigger than the iPod- or potentially is a lot bigger. At this point, I use my iPod about once a month w/ earbuds. . . several times per week with an iTrip. . . but iTunes drives our home music entirely via airport expresses scattered about the house. . . and iTunes is beginning to drive our AV as well- my macbook plugs into the tv & av receiver with zero config. . . between “handbrake” and the tv shows on iTunes we rarely watch regular tv anymore- it’s worth 2 bucks to watch something when I want to without 20 min / hr of commercials. The iTV device will ice the cake.
“You’re much better off to take one of your earbuds out and put it in her ear. Then you’re connected with about two feet of headphone cable.”
And can be arrested for battery.
“I rather stick my tounge in her ear.”
Or sexual battery.
“iPod that broadcasts whatever you are playing, and then people around you can TUNE in to it with their iPods.”
Like the Zune DJ feature, you mean?
Most strangers are going to recoil if you try to put anything in their ear. but they may be curious enough to connect to your MP3 player from a distance.
For those who haven’t seen the “Zune Walkthrough” and “Sharing Songs and Pictures with the Zune” videos, they are available from Microsoft 10 (on10.net) through iTunes as a <a >Video PodCast</a>.
Jobs’ point was great, you can either spend a few minutes transferring a song to a girl from across the room or you can get up nice and close to her and share an earbud…
I’ve never felt the desire to send someone a song or photo from my iPod. However, if the feature were there and I could find another zuner, it’d probably be a novelty for a day or two.
Also, I love that people are still commenting about the great feature of turning the Zune on it’s side for “widescreen.” 320×240 = 320×240. 320×240 @ 2.5″ > 320×240 @ 3.0″. Go enlarge a 5×7 to 8×10, if the input is the same, your photo doesn’t get better – it gets worse.
Oh, and On10.net is great with their iPod ready downloads and their Podcast subscription button. Microsoft, already defeated.
I double checked; those tags were correct when I hit submit.
<a >Video PodCast</a>
One more time, maybe I deserve a Zune. Let’s see…
Video PodCast
“Do you think that it’s fair to the customer that the songs they buy from Apple will only work on iTunes and the iPod?”
Jobs: “Well, they knew that all along.”
That’s funny, I’ve burned audio CDs on iTunes and listened to them on multiple different CD players. (home, car, portable)
iTunes = Free software download for Mac or PC, legal music purchase and ownership, CD burning portability, no iPod necessary. Not too shabby.
I do own a 5G iPod though, and love it : )
Did you hear that ? ‘the girls got up and left’ I’m lousy with women enough as it is. Screw the Zune.
By the time the 30gig WiFi Zune is released there will be a 100gig WiFi wide screen iPod. If Apple needs to compete with MS they need to release a limited edition “(insert artist name with sirname Brown)” iPod in a brown color.
Rabid Horny Dog…
I bought an 80gig iPod, and loaded pretty much all my favorite music on it. Now I can throw the computer in the bin if I want. My iPod is set up.
Rabid Horny Dog.
This is a valid point, but only if every song you buy is from the Zune Store.
Which seeing as only a small % of iPod content is bought via the iTS, this will be pretty small as well, seeing as it’s more difficult to buy via the Zune Store (worse DRM).
What about transferring your existing CD’s? You need a computer for that.
What about transferring your existing Albums? You need a computer for that.
Although I buy via the iTS, I still buy CD’s, so I still need a computer.
I still say that managing your music collection, (adding & deleting songs, changing their tags, creating new playlists, adding artwork), is way easier on a device that has a large screen, keyboard & a mouse – A COMPUTER.
I’d hate to arrange my music collection using the iPod. It’d be difficult doing this with the iPod, even though it has a great interface, imagine doing it on a player made by the company who hasn’t a clue about interface design? (Microsoft).
Then there’s the problem of backing up your mythical, non computer dependent device – how would you do that exactly?
On the iPod, it’s already sorted for you – it’s on iTunes if the iPod dies, and it’s on the iPod if iTunes dies.
Rabid Horny Dog – better think again. Or go back to the Microsoft PR meeting and ask them to give you an answer.
Microsoft – in order to beat Apple you need to stop thinking like a geek, and start thinking like a normal consumer.
Zune does NOT let you manage your library from the device. You cannot purchase music from the device, you need a computer. It can only download files from a nearby zune, and then ONLY for three days. If you wish to have the file for more than three days, you need to purchase it with your PC
Oh ye of little vision!
If one takes a close look at the Zune they would notice the screen size, the graphics and especially the wifi capability is a idea combination for the eventual advancement of a store on the device itself.
The other “shoe” of a device hasn’t been dropped yet, it could be the X-Box add on, it could be a ‘hard drive/dock/DSL modem’ combination.
You see, most people in the world don’t have, can’t afford, are not interested or “get” computers.
However most everyone enjoy’s music, especially portable music. Cd players and walkmans are their staple.
A Mp3 player with a music store/interface on the device itself would offer a easy upgrade for these people without the cost, trouble or hassle of learning a computer.
Processors are always getting cheaper by the day and there is a large enough storage space on these Mp3 players to offer a basic operating system.
The clue of what M$ is up to is obvious with the integrated WiFi capability. All they have to do is change (or reveal) the store interface to show their true plans, all the hardware needs are in place.
I bought an 80gig iPod, and loaded pretty much all my favorite music on it. Now I can throw the computer in the bin if I want. My iPod is set up.
And if the iPod breaks then what? What if you want new music or manage songs? Can’t do without a computer right?
I think M$ is going to offer a X-Box add on or a seperate device with hard drive (for auto backup) /DSL modem / Wifi ability to provide the link to the M$ Music Store. We haven’t seen this second device yet but should appear around the Holidays.
Steve Jobs should be very concerned.