Since 2001, Apple has been leaving all other contenders to it's portable music sensation of the Apple iPod. Since then, Apple has released many version of the iPod and has released many new generations. At that point at which I got it, iPods were all the rage. Since releasing the first iPod, Apple have seen their creation grow from strength to strength. They have remained in constant fashion for about 8 years and with continual growth to the product, Apple has found a huge amount of success and have been able to make the iPod the must have accessory of the generation. In my own experience, there isn't a day that goes by in my life that I don't see someone with the white earphones of an iPod stuck deep into their ears. This may or may not be the case around the world but I cannot help but be impressed with the fame that Apple has found because of the iPod.
It is my own opinion that they have covered all of the bases that a person could want. For example, they have created the Shuffle. The Shuffle is quite limited and does the trick for a very cheap price. The first iPod I ever bought was a shuffle and it was perfect for me. It is small and extremely compact piece of equipment.
Then you have the Nano, I have since owned 3 generations of Nano. I won my first one in a competition in my school and since then, I have loved them. The first one I had was nothing special. It only played music and basically did nothing else. The thing is though that it was just so trendy to have one that I bought another one on it's really date. It was the fat Nano that I bought and it still stands as my favourite Nano of all time. It was the first one that I owned that could play video and I was very impressed with how good it looks on such a decent sized screen. The last Nano I got was the longer Nano, right after the fat one. Apple did a good job of making me want to buy this little thing. I already had two Nano's and they convinced me to buy another! This time, it was for the shaker technology and the sideways rotation. Fair enough. However, all of which, except fat Nano have broken. It was my fault though but the fact remains the same. Nano's have had a grip over people since they started out.
The last iPod I have bought is the iPod touch. It is far and away the best iPod I have owned and is just a fabulous piece of equipment. The touch friendly screen and user-interface is second to none in terms of usability and just has a tremendous amount of likeability for such a cheap device. It has charmed me more and more since the first day that I bought it and has never stopped.
I don't own a Classic, so I really cannot comment about it but I do know that it is also a fine piece of tech. It has a huge hard drive tucked inside it in a very compact little package.
Now, the point of this thread is not to go ahead and talk about iPods and how usable they are. This thread is about how the iPod has really turned around the fortunes of a dwindling company that had no direction before this invention. Apple were far from the technical behemoth that it is now. Back then, it was losing the fight for computer supremacy to Windows/Microsoft and nothing was making them stand out from the crowd. Then, the iPod came along and changed everything. Since then, Apple have just taken everything out that has dared to stand in it's way. Look at this for example. Since the invention of the iPod, Apple have sky-rocketed to fame. The have created their own web-browser, a computer that is essentially one of the most user friendly ones around (iMac) and have created the iPhone. The iPhone is massive in terms of financial gain and has been suer successful.
Anyway, what do you personally think of the sensation that is the iPod and do you think that my summation of Apple before and after is correct?