How I Got Hooked By The iPod

October 25th, 2006

Apple Recently the iPod turned five. Wired has a good story of its creation. I recall, when Steve Jobs originally announced the iPod, that I admittedly didn’t think it was that big a deal. In fact, I thought it was bit of an odd duck because Apple hadn’t proven they could compete in the world of consumer electronics.

However, several factors worked in Apple’s favor that weren’t entirely evident at the time.

Quality software: The first was quality software. Even back in 2001, I was already using the easy-to-use iTunes at that point to manage all my MP3s. Because of this, I’m sure Apple knew it was just a matter of time before I bought an iPod. All that music with no place to go.

Constant upgrades: Second, Apple was determined to refresh the iPod every year if not every six months. They constantly improved the iPod, adding subtle features and innovations, simultaneously maintaining the “newness” factor.

I don’t own just one: This leads me to my last observation, which is that once I became an iPod user, before I knew it I owned multiple iPods, either different iPods for various uses, or by getting caught up in the upgrade game.

I’ve realized that my wife and I have owned five iPods. I bought a Shuffle when it first came out. I loved it. Then I bought a Nano. A trade-up got me an iPod Video. My wife then got a shuffle, and then a Nano. We had to each get our own iPods because we have different musical tastes (plus there is no sharing when take the iPod to work with you every day).

The price points for all the iPods are carefully layered. A Shuffle is an impulse buy. But once I got the taste, adding a hundred bucks to get an actual iPod didn’t seem like much at all. Before I knew it, I had to have a video-playing iPod… just because I wanted it, not for any real practical reason. The iPod had hooked me.

I know one fellow who literally buys the most recent iPod as soon as it comes out, and ditches his “old” model in order to pay for the new one. Maybe there is a used iPod trickle-down effect from this. The old iPods are disseminated throughout the population, and before you know it these people are hooked, too, and suddenly have to get the latest iPod after playing around with an “old” one.

So I think these factors may help explain why so many are hooked on the iPod. And as long as Apple keeps yet another model with more cool features (wireless, PDA functionality, iPhone, larger screen, even smaller Shuffle), I have no idea how I’ll resist eventually buying yet another one.

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