the Apple iPod
Below is an email I sent to a bunch of friends in May 2003, Apple Inc. had just released the 3rd generation iPod. At the time there was only one person I knew with an iPod, my grandmother. I was over for a visit and she showed it to me, a friend bought it for her and loaded the songs from a Mac. I bought one the next day.
Granny rocking my iPod Nano on our flight home from Manila to Toronto via Tokyo.
I was the kid who ALWAYS had a walkman on me. I love music and would rather have it on than not on. Mp3 players and particularly the iPod was made for people like me. I thought the interface was ingenious, a big wheel and touch sensitive buttons rather than moving buttons. No question in my mind that this was a product I wanted to own and it was worth my hard earned money.
It’s exciting trying to imagine what kind of technology we will have in the next 5, 10, 15 years. You can control your iPod from the steering wheel of some cars and the thing didn’t even exist at the turn of the millennium. I’d say that’s market impact.
I’m finding that some of my best thinking seems to come to me when I’m completely sleep deprived. I was pretty confident that the iPod and Apple would be successful based just on my assessment of the product (similar to how I fell in love with gmail pretty quickly, which I will save for another blog post).
Rather than going out the next day and buying an iPod, I should have gone out and bought Apple STOCK. (AAPL: was around $9 at the time and it’s now $250.)
> —–Original Message—–
> From: Leo Flor
> Sent: Monday, May 19, 2003 1:42 AM
> To: Leo Flor
> Subject: The Apple iPod
>
> Since I’ve been at work now for 80 of the last 96 hours and I’m losing my
> mind, I thought it’d be a good time to write everyone I know. (Yes I know
> it’s a long weekend, but my company wants to send one of our customers a
> software release tomorrow morning.)
>
> More specifically, I want to tell you about my new and greatest toy EVER,
> the Apple iPod. (It almost makes life not suck.)
>
> Why is the iPod so fantastic? Because it will hold every song you could
> ever want to listen to and you can take the bad boy anywhere. I have the
> 15 GB version and I’m having a hard time filling it. It’s sick. I’ve
> even figured out how to play it in my car. The iPod is a MUST-HAVE for
> all music lovers. Check it out: www.apple.com/ipod.
>
> FAQs:
> 1.) How much is it?
> Well it’s ‘slightly’ steep. I think Compucentre is the only store
> carrying it in Canada.
>
> 2.) How long is the battery life?
> ~8 hours. That’s crazy! And you charge it like a cell phone, no more fishing
> out $$$ for AAs all the time.
>
> 3.) Exactly how many songs can it hold?
> 10GB = about 2500
> 15GB = about 3750
> 30GB = about 7500
>
> 4.) Why did you get the 15 instead of just the 10?
> Because the 15 and 30 comes with a remote, a carrying case and a dock.
>
> 5.) Does it support windows?
> Yes but the USB adapter isn’t available until June. Luckily, I have an
> iMac on my desk at work.
>
> 6.) What makes this better than any other MP3 player?
> It holds WAY more songs, it doesn’t skip. It’s extremely well designed.
> MUCH sexier than any other hard-drive MP3 player out there.
>
> 7.) When did you become such a geek?
> Always have been.
>
> 8.) How much coffee have you had?
> A lot.
>
> 9.) How much sleep have you had?
> Not that much.
>
>
> Feel free to email me any more questions.
>
> All I’m saying is go to the store and test it out (or you could borrow
> mine, ya that will happen). All it takes is 5 minutes and you’ll convince
> yourself that you NEED this sh*t. C’mon, my gramma has one, you can’t let
> my gramma be cooler than you…
>
> God Apple should pay me for this. Anyway, I hope this brightens your
> Tuesday morning!
>
> Cheers,
> Leo
>
> And remember kids, just say NO to working weekends.
Themocracy
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