Thought at Walkman's 30th Birthday: Why did iPod Dominate the Media Market?

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Thought at Walkman's 30th birthday: Why did iPod dominate the media market nowadays?

Sony Walkman has turned 30 years old. Thirty years ago, the device was revolutionary changed the way people listened to music. Sony sold 30,000 Walkmans in the first two months after its launch, and 50 million within a decade. It created the portable media player market. Three decades on, however, Sony is struggling against rivals such as Apple, which has enjoyed immense success with its iPod music player. Apple iPod might be the market leader today. While people celebrate Walkman

[KB]

Wow thats a heck of a long post (I must admit I didn't get all the way through), however if the question is why did iPod steal Sony's thunder I believe there's probably 3 main reasons...

(1)iPod was the first that let you store your own selections

(2)People still think of walkman as a portable radio or cassette player

(3)Advertising

Ken

[numptyj]

Sonys new X series has OLED touch screen not just a bright screen which allows it to give a longer battery life also.

If you can get into a store and try Ipod and X series side by side then you will see exactly why walkman has been so big.

[Neuuubeh]

Sony is still big. They had a bit of catching to do on the portable mp3 player market but not so anymore...

Apple just got lucky to have the right product at the right time and show it to the right people. But is it still good? I don't own any product from apple (and don't think I ever will), however lots of people (/audiophiles) state that the later incarnations of the Ipod are getting progressively worse (quality wise) than the very first.

I ask myself however, what is going to happen to Apple once Jobs disappears from the game.. Lets be honest, the guy is an amazing promoter and all those Apple zealots are buying every single word that comes out of his mouth...

[Marken]

Wow thats a heck of a long post (I must admit I didn't get all the way through), however if the question is why did iPod steal Sony's thunder I believe there's probably 3 main reasons...

(1)iPod was the first that let you store your own selections

(2)People still think of walkman as a portable radio or cassette player

(3)Advertising

Ken

I think your third reason, advertising, is where the magic lies. Let's face it, iPods aren't that good!

For starters, the formats supported are mp3, aiff, wav and the M4*s. That's it. I'd like to see them support other common formats, such as the lossless FLAC and Ogg Vorbis. Secondly, you're forced to use iTunes. Nowadays I'm using a Mac, so iTunes runs fairly smooth on my system. iTunes running on a Windows PC however, is a different story. Getting it to handle all my albums, is like running a marathon with concrete shoes. The amount of resources required to keep it running is frightening! Also, why is Apple so scared of me copying songs FROM an iPod to a PC/MAC? Sure, you can get third-party software to handle that stuff, but i don't want that. Why would you buy a car that won't go in reverse?

Being a one month iPhone user, I liked being able to watch videos on it. Well, at least I thought I could until I tried to transfer some. Most of the video I've got is in either .wmv or divX .avi which the iPhone/iPod Touch won't handle. Again I am forced to do hours of encoding using the famous Third Party. Apparently, Apple wants me to buy everyting from iTunes, but this is a service they only provide in the US!

Still, iPod is now a synonym for mp3-player. Even my 82 year old grandmother has heard of the iPod. This leads me to something Apple succeeds at; convincing you that as long as the product has a half-eaten apple, it's brilliant. It really doesn't matter if it can't do what any of the other devices can do. It's all about the way it is presented. It seems as if they can release just about anything and create a hype about it. When the new iPhone OS 3.0 was released, Apple had a world of fanboys going wild over a simple copy/paste function. This is something even the HTC I had 5 years ago could do.

Yes, Apple are innovators, there is no doubt about it. Still, it is their ability to drown the missing features, and instead advertise heavily the new ones that make them one of the top companies when it comes to customer loyalty and branding.

[andreww]

Apple cashed in on the right marketing strategy at the right time. MP3 pirating was taking off, and Apple's "Rip, Mix, Burn" slogan played right in to that. They just didn't create the player, they created free software that allowed users to easily catalogue their collections. Storage space was amazing for the time (5 gigs), which was enough to keep most people rocking for days without repetition. Also, being able to use the device as a portable firewire drive fit the needs of mac users (mostly designers in those days) nicely.

Apple continued to improve the device on a regular basis, adding space and cool new features with every release. I've owned several ipods over the years, starting with the 10gig V2. I remember being the only guy on my commute to have one! My most recent ipod, the "Touch", is another brilliant device. However, as an ipod, I think it took a giant step backward. The "external drive" option has been disabled. Adding things like videos from a different computer than your own is impossible. It just seems very prohibitive in what you can do with it. I use my 5g 60 gig ipod video as my traveling device, and the touch as a portable internet & email device at home.

[jdkno]

I think it was the right product at the right time backed by the right advertising. Like anything else once you carve out your place in the market it takes alot for another product to take your place. Once they got a foot hold all they had to do was stay one step ahead, even if it was just a baby step.

I can't remember what version I had gotten first but it worked well and the user interface was pretty easy. Unlike some mp3 players of the time I was able to seperate my music into folders, much like having individual CD's vs. a big storage box of music. My brother had a Sony of some sort at the time and the only sense of order he could control was the order of the songs. There were no seperating folders ect. like my iPod had. Here is another big selling point for iPod, car integration. Once car stereos started coming out with the ability to control the ipod from the in dash head unit it was over for everyone else. I put an Alpine stereo into my car that could control the ipod, which was right when the ipod video came out, so I sold my old ipod and bought an ipod video and haven't looked back. When my wife wanted an mp3 player I bought her an iPod and got a stereo with nav system and ipod controls to put into her car.

Just to show you how behind the times other makers are. Sony makes a host of car audio products, and they make MP3 players. You can buy a Sony radio to put into your car that will control an ipod but you can't get a Sony radio that will control Sony's own MP3 players.

Now you can buy a brand new car that already has the ability to control the ipod from the factory radio, and for your house you can buy a stereo reciever that can control the ipod.

[fcaap_dan]

Secondly, you're forced to use iTunes.

That was the deciding factor for me to not buy an ipod when I bought several mp3 players.

[redwatch]

Ease of use......especially with iTunes. They took the term plug n play and made it mean something. It just plain works. No drivers to install, no Music Match Jukebox sillyness, or the Creative software for the Zen that my dad used to use. Once I got him an iPod Nano for Christmas, he gladly threw the Zen away. He loves iTunes now and records his LP's and 1/4" Reel To Reel tapes into his PC and imports them straight into iTunes to put on his Nano. My dad is no computer guy, and he managed to figure it out.

I think that between the advertising and Apple Store support, it makes the non-computer people feel more at ease with this new fangled computer technology. Just my 0.02

[Pugwash]

Simple Interface - The Apple iPod has an extremely simple interface, needing only a few seconds of use to be able to master it. It is very easy to use.

This is why they won. MP3 players were geek toys until the iPod made them consumer gadgets.

[andreww]

This is why they won. MP3 players were geek toys until the iPod made them consumer gadgets.

Kind of have to disagree with you there Pug. Sure the interface is slick, everything Apple does is. But, as I recall, when the ipod was released it was the first hard drive based player around. The other MP3 players were all using very limited flash based memory. My Rio player that I was using had a stock 32mb that could be upgraded to 64, then later 256mb. Nothing came close to the iPods 5gig drive, and by the time they caught up, the ipod was already firmly entrenched.