Reflections on the iPod Revolution on Its 5th Birthday

I have to confess that when Steve Jobs unveiled the iPod five years ago today, commenting, "With iPod, listening to music will never be the same again," my initial reaction was something like whaaaaat?!? A pocket digital jukebox seemed like such a radical departure from what Apple had previously signified to me . . . sort of a Walkman for MP3s, only more elegant. And the price made you suck in your breath. Slow on the uptake, I guess.

I shouldn't have underestimated the triple-whammy effect of the power of music, Steve Jobs' promotional magic, and Jonathan Ive's sublime design sense. My daughter immediately wanted one and bought one of the first revision A models that made it here to Nova Scotia.

It was indeed a cool little gadget, but even once I got my hands on one, I still didn't perceive it as the engine that would propel Apple to massive profits and regained market share, not just in the digital music player category - which it quickly dominated - but also the so-called "halo effect" with increased computer sales riding on the iPod's proverbial coat tails.

The iPod is . . . the definitive consumer product of the first decade of the 21st century.

Part of my cognitive failure to grasp the significance of the coming of the iPod or to imagine the enduring trend it would spawn was that I don't think the profundity of the Sony Walkman revolution, of which the iPod as a socio-cultural phenomenon is a logical extension, had ever really sunk in. The iPod is more than a paradigm-busting product for Apple; it's secured its place as the definitive consumer product of the first decade of the 21st century. Who'da thunk it?

I have a (cassette) Walkman; my kids and my wife all have portable CD-players; and I have an iPod now, too. I love my iPod, which I received "preowned" as a gift from a kind individual who had moved on to a newer and better one, but the whole idea of nonstop music in an "ultraportable package you can take everywhere" (to quote Apple's original "prophetic" hype) just didn't grab me and never has.

I don't recall ever actually going for a walk with either my Walkman or iPod playing, both of which more often than not have been used hooked up to a pair of powered speakers, although lately I've been using a set of pro Proporta ear buds that I really like a lot. I'm more oriented to listening to my music sitting down.

Don't get me wrong. I'm a music fan with a wide range of tastes from baroque and classical to rock, jazz, pop, and country. I've rarely missed an episode of Canadian or American Idol over the past few years. And yet the sweetest music to my ears is often complete silence, which is available where I live. I'm fortunate enough (at least in my estimation) to live in a peaceful and isolated rural redoubt where it's dead quiet most of the time.

I suppose it's a different dynamic when one is surrounded by the racket of urban life, as most people are these days, but I still have to wonder what the ultimate socio-cultural effect of so many people spending large proportion of their time listening to recorded music thanks to the convenience and ubiquity that devices like the iPod facilitate.

By the same token, I've never been much for listening to music in automobiles, right from the days when I had a big old buzzing AM-only (no hardship, since there were no FM stations within range) tube set set mounted on top of the transmission tunnel in my '61 Austin A55 Mk II back when I was 16.

A car radio was obligatory even back in the 60s (and the music was pretty good) if you didn't want your friends and your girlfriend complaining, but when I was alone, I found that I preferred listening to the engine, the sound of the tires on the highway, and "the windshield wipers slappin' time" if it was raining. I still do to this day and have run into other motor-heads who say the same.

I rarely even turn the car radio on except to catch the news and weather. My car and my truck (both early-to-mid 90s vintage) have decent cassette decks that I have never used.

Consequently, I find myself bemused at the priority emphasis being placed on automotive sound systems these days. I was noticing the other day that more than half the descriptive text in newspaper ads for the new 2007 Dodge Nitro and Jeep Compass crossovers (introduced this month) is dedicated to audio system specs (including iPod docks). Lost on me, I'm afraid. I'm more than happy with an AM/FM radio in my car.

But even Mac aficionados who don't have an iPod and have little or no interest in obtaining one have plenty to thank the little critter for. It has breathed new life and a brighter future into the Mac platform - along with OS X and the switch to Intel processors.

My iPod is a revision A 5 GB model identical to the one my daughter bought back in '01. The hard drive died in hers last year, and I got her an Apple Certified Refurbished 4 GB iPod mini to replace it, but mine is still going strong - with a new lease on life since I installed a high capacity TruePower battery from FastMac earlier this year.

So far 5 GB has proved ample to contain my modest collection of MP3s with plenty of room to spare. In I ever get around to figuring out how to rip my collection of classical vinyl LP recordings to MP3, I might test its capacity, but right now it's plenty - indeed, even a 2 GB iPod nano would be. I could probably even get by quite happily with a iPod shuffle, since I use shuffle mode most of the time anyway.

As for iPod video, after failing to grasp the importance of iPod mediated audio at first, I'm not inclined to be dismissive. Perhaps portable pocket video will be a big thing, too. Personally, the concept of watching a movie or a one-hour TV show on a 2.5" screen doesn't seem all that appealing, but my daughter thinks it would be great, so who knows?

Anyway, happy birthday iPod. I'm really not an "iPodoclast", and I wouldn't want to be without one now, although, as I said, my elderly 5 GB unit suits me just fine for the present.

And maybe I'll even warm up to iPod video eventually.  

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