Monday, October 23, 2006
An iPod story
About a year ago I started talking about the Apple iPod. It was for a column but by Christimas time I had decided to buy one for myself and one for my wife. My family has since jumped into the deep end of the iPod pool. We all have them. To top it off, we gave my dad one for his 80th birthday last week.
It was a big family gathering with his twin brother (also turning 80, of course) and his two other brothers coming from as far off as Florida and New Hampshire. My sister and I thought it was time to get him hooked on the iPod.
I was sure my dad would embrace it. He has been computer savey for a number of years. He does his banking and stock deals online. He has a digital camera and saves his images to his laptop.
But he had never bothered to get into the personal digital music device arena. He had long ago switched to CDs for his music and enjoyed listening to books on tape or CD. My sister and I thought it was time to introduce him to iTunes and the wealth of music and audiobooks available there.
I had done a mock newspaper filled with old pictures of my dad and his brothers from back in their youth and through their careers in the Navy. While the family was distracted by this quasi attempt at family journalism, I went downstairs and loaded iTunes on his computer. We wanted to go ahead and download a book for him so the iPod wouldn't be an empty gift. I took a break after loading the software and came upstairs.
It wasn't long before my dad came up to me asking what that software was that now on his computer. The jig was up. I got my sister and we took him back to his computer and gave him his iPod--a black 30 Gig video model. I then showed him how to download tunes and audiobooks. We downloaded the book for him along with several tunes like Glen Miller's "In the Mood" and several John Phillip Sousa marches (after all he is retired Navy).
This is just one iPod story. But there are literally millions of them. The little device has earned Apple something like a billion and a half dollars this year. It has become the dominate music device with an 85 percent market share.
The iPod is now celebrating its fifth anniversary and it appears to be going strong. The latest rumor is that there will soon be an iPhone. Such a device is inevitable. It is another one of those convergence issues. People want a single all-purpose device. I predict there will be an iPhone and it will be a success.
It was a big family gathering with his twin brother (also turning 80, of course) and his two other brothers coming from as far off as Florida and New Hampshire. My sister and I thought it was time to get him hooked on the iPod.
I was sure my dad would embrace it. He has been computer savey for a number of years. He does his banking and stock deals online. He has a digital camera and saves his images to his laptop.
But he had never bothered to get into the personal digital music device arena. He had long ago switched to CDs for his music and enjoyed listening to books on tape or CD. My sister and I thought it was time to introduce him to iTunes and the wealth of music and audiobooks available there.
I had done a mock newspaper filled with old pictures of my dad and his brothers from back in their youth and through their careers in the Navy. While the family was distracted by this quasi attempt at family journalism, I went downstairs and loaded iTunes on his computer. We wanted to go ahead and download a book for him so the iPod wouldn't be an empty gift. I took a break after loading the software and came upstairs.
It wasn't long before my dad came up to me asking what that software was that now on his computer. The jig was up. I got my sister and we took him back to his computer and gave him his iPod--a black 30 Gig video model. I then showed him how to download tunes and audiobooks. We downloaded the book for him along with several tunes like Glen Miller's "In the Mood" and several John Phillip Sousa marches (after all he is retired Navy).
This is just one iPod story. But there are literally millions of them. The little device has earned Apple something like a billion and a half dollars this year. It has become the dominate music device with an 85 percent market share.
The iPod is now celebrating its fifth anniversary and it appears to be going strong. The latest rumor is that there will soon be an iPhone. Such a device is inevitable. It is another one of those convergence issues. People want a single all-purpose device. I predict there will be an iPhone and it will be a success.
# posted by Richard Polk @ 10:45 AM 
