Why love iPod

Generation iPod (noun) definition: the next device to take over the world
Since its introduction all the way back in October 2001, iPod since then has become a long way, with new versions released just days after you saw the advertise for the last version, iPod has given birth 6 times and iPod’s baby the Nano is catching up, having released generation 5 this year in 9th September, and now Apple has expanded the iPod line with the long-awaited release of the iPhone mid-way so far….so why do we need them, why put up with them…?

Here’s why, on 15th September 2009, Japanese BCN research firm published a portable multimedia player weekly sales statistics, with the latest version, iPod got the best seller. It seized 58% of the whole share. According to the figure in September 2007, more than 150 million iPods have been sold worldwide, making it the best-selling digital audio player series in history and changing culture forever, more than 2/3 of people have an iPod and it’s rare these days to go one day without hearing about it, or hearing music coming out of it.

Music hits people’s emotions, and the purchase of something that opens up one’s entire music collection, up to 10,000 songs in your pocket makes for an intense relationship. When people buy iPods, they often obsess, talking incessantly about playlists and segues, grumbling about glitches, fixating on battery life and panicking at the very thought of losing their new digital friend. Although iPods aren’t everywhere, its popular destination seems centered in big cities, college towns, gyms and in the pockets of teenagers, but it does seem that way. I have got an iPod for a few years mainly because most of my friends in my age have got this player, so now I become addicted to it. I love music, and always collect good songs from all styles. The most attractive function of iPod to me is its big enough space to save large number of songs. And it is easy to find the song from the long list.

Fans of the devices use it for more than music; computer users have discovered that its vast storage space makes it a useful vault for huge digital files. The makers of “The Lord of the Rings” movies used iPods to shuttle dailies from the set to the studio. Thousands of less-accomplished shutterbugs store digital photos on them and with Australia following by opening up its own Apple Store in Sydney’s Town Hall, who knows what new tricks Aussie’s will discover about this highly loved gadget. In addition, since the iTunes store encourages customers to eschew buying entire CDs, instead buying the best song or two for a few dollars, it’s easy to see why some think that the era of the CD is playing its final tracks, a circumstance many will cry for.

When Apple released a version a few months after 9/11 that would run for Windows and Mac, it dramatically increased the potential market. Finally, after intense negotiations with the record labels, Apple licensed hundreds of thousands of songs for its iTunes Music Store, which blended seamlessly with the iPod. As with the iPod itself, the legal-download store was not the first of its kind but was so lucky and efficient that it leapt to a 70 percent market share.

Then sales began to spike. No one was surprised that Apple sold an impressive 733,000 iPods during the Christmas season last year, but the normally quiet quarter after that saw an increase to 807,000, which saw Apple announcing that sales in the just-completed third quarter hit 860,000, up from 249,000 a year ago. Even though Macintosh sales have gone up recently, the odds today are small of anyone that owns a Mac as opposed to the competition, and Steve Jobs CEO of Apple, doesn’t want that to happen with his company’s music player.

There are lots of examples where not the best product wins, Windows would be one of those, but there are examples where the best product wins, all you have to do is ask someone with white cords dangling from their ears. Regardless all the positive sides of iPod, the challenges from other competitors are always there. Two years ago, Microsoft’s new line of Zune music players are intended to compete better with Apple’s iPod than the original Zune has. The article “Microsoft Challenges the iPod (Again) can be found at: http://motherhobbies.blogspot.com/2007/12/microsoft-challenges-ipod-again_02.html

It says: “Microsoft’s new second-generation Zune music/photo/video player is a pleasure to use. It fixes a long list of things that made the original Zune such a pathetic wannabe. Best of all, the new Zune is starting to develop its own identity. The echoes of Microsoft executives saying, “It’ll be just like the iPod, only ours” aren’t quite as loud on this one.” Regarding the reality, most of functions among these media players are similar, so in the future, there will be consistant challenges facing iPod. Howeve, iPod would be my favourite forever.