2/7/2008 - Apple Music Event 2001

It's hard to believe, but it's been almost seven years since Apple first introduced the iPod. Looking at this introduction video now, it was so hard to imagine back then that this little device that plays music would be the one thing that brought Apple back into the mainstream of consumer electronics. After all, it only worked on Apple machines which at the time had very little market share. Also, it was very expensive compared to MP3 CD-players that could play about 100 songs per CD. I don't even know if Steve Jobs himself knew what a phenomenon the iPod would be, even though in this video he touts all the features that did make it a smash: its ultra-portability (even though it looks so bulky now), its ability to store your entire music library (even though the current Nano holds the same amount at less than half the price), its ease of management (one could argue that iTunes has gotten bloated now), and its cool sytle (again, the current Nano trumps the original in every respect).



Of course, at the time, no one knew what was really up the sleeves of Steve Jobs: the iTunes online music store and the availability of iTunes for Windows. The first came at a very opportune time when the RIAA started to seriously crack down on Napster downloaders, forcing the file-sharing program to cease operation. Who knew that so many people would happily switch to paying for their music? And everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY was shocked when iTunes came to Windows. Even Jobs said that "hell has frozen over" when it happened. But looking at it all now, it all made sense. Only true geniuses like Steve Jobs would have known it years ago.