Encyclopedia
The
iPod is a brand of portable media players designed and marketed by
Apple Computer. Devices in the iPod family are designed around a central scroll wheel and the full-sized model stores
media on an internal
hard drive, while the smaller
iPod nano and iPod shuffle use
flash memory. Like many
digital audio players, iPods can also serve as external
data storage devices. Apple chose to focus its development on the iPod's simple user interface and its ease of use, rather than on technical capability.
As of 2006, the lineup consists of the 5
th generation iPod, which reproduces
video; the smaller, second generation iPod nano; and the display-less iPod shuffle, the smallest of the three. These models were improved in 2006.
The bundled software used for transferring music, photos and videos is called
iTunes. As a jukebox application, iTunes stores a comprehensive library of music on the user's computer and can play, burn, and rip music from a CD. The most recent version has photo and video synchronization features.
The iPod is currently the world's best-selling digital audio player and its worldwide mainstream adoption makes it one of the most popular consumer brands. Some of Apple's design choices and proprietary actions have, however, led to criticism and legal battles.
History and design
The iPod came from Apple's digital hub strategy, as the company began creating software for the growing market of digital devices purchased by consumers. While digital cameras, camcorders and organizers had well-established mainstream markets, the company found digital music players lacking in user interface and decided to develop its own.
Tony Fadell, a former
Philips executive in the company's
Windows CE division, left Philips to create a hard drive based MP3 player and a music service . He founded a company, Fuse, to develop and sell the idea to major media companies. After
RealNetworks turned him down, Apple accepted and they began developing the iPod in February 2001, one month after iTunes was released. It was announced to the public on 23 October 2001 as a Mac-compatible product with a 5 GB hard drive that put "1000 songs in your pocket."
Uncharacteristically, Apple decided not to develop the iPod's software in-house. Instead, Apple used a Design Chain and contracted with PortalPlayer, who already had a reference design with rudimentary software running on top of a commercial microkernel embedded operating system. PortalPlayer had been working on an IBM-branded MP3 player with
Bluetooth headphones.
Purchased audio files use the AAC format with added encryption. The encryption is based on the controversial FairPlay
digital rights management system. Up to five authorized computers and an unlimited number of iPods can play the files. Burning the files onto an audio CD removes the DRM, at a cost of reduced quality when re-compressed from one lossy format to another.
iPods cannot play music files from other competing music stores such as
Napster or
MSN Music which use rival DRM technologies like
Microsoft's protected WMA or
RealNetworks'
Helix DRM. RealNetworks claims that Apple is creating problems for itself, by using FairPlay to lock users into using the iTunes Store. Steve Jobs has stated that Apple makes very little profit from song sales, but Apple uses the store to promote iPod sales.
File storage
All iPods can function as mass storage devices to store data files. If the iPod is formatted on a Mac OS X computer it uses the HFS Plus file system format. If it is formatted on Windows, the FAT32 format is used because Windows cannot access HFS filesystems. The user must still use iTunes or a compatible third-party software to load audio, videos, and photos in such a way that they are playable and viewable on the iPod. Simply copying files to the drive will not allow the iPod to properly access them, however, with the use of open-source software, it is possible.
An iPod formatted as HFS Plus is able to serve as a boot disk for a Mac computer, allowing one to have a portable operating system installed. The older iPods with
FireWire ports could additionally function in FireWire Disk Mode. With the advent of the Windows-compatible iPod, the iPod's default file system was switched from HFS Plus to FAT32, although they could be reformatted to either filesystem .
iTunes cannot transfer songs or videos from device to computer, unless they were purchased from the iTunes Store and authorized for use on that computer. The media files are stored in a hidden folder together with a proprietary database on the iPod. While the hidden content can be accessed through the host operating system, practical recovery of the audio with correct file names, tag meta-data, and playlists requires the use of third-party software.
Additional features
iPods also have limited
PDA-like functionality and can display text files. Contacts and schedules can be viewed and synchronized with the host computer using either iSync, iTunes,
Apple Mail,
iCal,
Outlook or
Outlook Express. The larger models have some built-in games such as
Brick,
Parachute,
Solitaire and
Music Quiz. Brick was originally invented by Apple co-founder
Steve Wozniak in the 1970s.
A firmware update released in September 2006 brought several new features to 5th generation iPods including downloadable games, adjustable screen brightness, and rudimentary gapless playback. Prior to this software update , the iPod's screen brightness could not be adjusted, which resulted in a higher battery demand.
Open-source alternatives
The
iPodLinux project has ported an ARM version of the
Linux kernel alongside an interface called "Podzilla" to run on the first, second, third and 5th generation iPods, other versions of the kernels are still being developed. However, the development team does not support its usage. The iPod Shuffle will never be supported because Shuffles are based on a different architecture.
An open-source firmware called
Rockbox allows the iPod nano, mini, and all iPods after the 3
rd generation to play Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, Musepack, Wavpack, Shorten, MP1, MP2 and
MIDI files, but not FairPlay-encrypted files from the iTunes Store. Rockbox also offers gapless playback and a more sophisticated
equalizer but is in a testing stage as of September 2006.
Connectivity
Originally, a FireWire connection to the host computer was used to update songs or recharge the battery. The battery could also be charged with a power adapter that was included with the first 4 generations. The 3
rd generation included a dock connector allowing for FireWire or USB connectivity, although the device could not be charged via USB. The USB connectivity provided better compatibility with PCs, as most of them did not have FireWire ports at the time. The FireWire cables were nonetheless needed to connect to the AC adaptor. The dock connector also brought an opportunity to exchange data, sound and power with an iPod, which ultimately created a large market of accessories, manufactured by third parties such as
Belkin and
Griffin.
The 4
th generation iPod allowed recharging via USB and eventually Apple started shipping iPods with USB cables instead of FireWire. Later generations continued to lessen the reliance on FireWire. For example the iPod shuffle plugs directly into a USB port and has no FireWire support. The transition from FireWire to USB meant that older Macs were limited to slow data transfers, since FireWire was a standard feature on Apple Macs for many years, while USB 2.0 support was only added in October 2003. Previously, all Macs had USB 1.1 ports, which had a transfer speed of 12 Mbit/s, as opposed to FireWire's 400 Mbit/s or USB 2.0's 480 Mbit/s.
Chipsets and electronics
Some electronic components used in iPods
| Model | Storage medium | Microcontroller | Audio chip |
|---|
| iPod 1G, 2G, 3G | 1.8 inch ATA hard drives , made by Toshiba. | Two ARM 7TDMI-derived CPUs running at 90 MHz. | Various audio codecs manufactured by Wolfson Microelectronics |
| iPod 4G, 5G | Variable speed ARM 7TDMI CPUs, running at a peak of 80 MHz to save battery life. |
| iPod mini 1G, 2G | 1 inch Microdrives manufactured by Hitachi |
| iPod nano 1G | Flash memory from Samsung, Toshiba and others | 2 ARM 7TDMI CPUs @ 80 MHz |
| iPod shuffle | Flash memory | SigmaTel STMP3550 chip that handles both the music decoding and the audio circuitry. |
|
Each iPod has a 1 MB or 512 KB NOR flash
ROM chip which contains a
bootloader — a program that tells the device to load its operating system from its storage medium. Each iPod also has 32 MB of
RAM, although the 60 and 80 GB 5
th generation have 64 MB. A portion of the RAM is used to hold the iPod OS loaded from firmware, but the majority of it serves to cache songs loaded from the storage medium. For example, an iPod could spin its hard disk up once and copy about 30 MB of upcoming songs into RAM, thus save power by not having the drive spin up for each song.
The current iPod models use internal lithium-ion batteries batteries. The 1
st and 2
nd generations used
lithium polymer batteries. The larger models use touch wheels provided by
Synaptics.
On April 26, 2006, EE Times reported that
Samsung Electronics had won the contract to provide the media processor for a future model iPod, replacing Apple's previous design supplier PortalPlayer.
iPod models
Apple has released different iPod models with different designs, colors, and storage capacities. Information about the current and discontinued models are available on Apple's website.
| Model | Image | Capacity | Changes introduced | Connection | Original Release date | Launch price |
|---|
| iPod | 1G | | 5, 10 GB | First release. | FireWire | 23 October 2001 | $399, $499 |
|---|
| 2G | | 10, 20 GB | Touch sensitive wheel. FireWire port had a cover. | FireWire | 17 July 2002 | $399, $499 |
|---|
| 3G | | 10, 15, 20, 30, 40 GB | Dock Connector. Middle row of buttons. | FireWire | 28 April 2003 | $299, $399, $399, $499 |
|---|
| 4G / photo | | 20, 30, 40, 60 GB | Buttons integrated to "touch wheel". Color display with photo viewer replaced monochrome display in October 2004. | FireWire or USB | July 2004 | $299, $349, $399, $599 |
|---|
| 5G | | 30, 60, 80 GB | Slimmer design. Larger screen with video player and lyrics support. No AC adapter, Universal Dock, or A/V cables included. The September 2006 enhanced version featured a brighter display, longer video battery life and a music search function. | USB | 12 October 2005 | $249, $399, $349 |
|---|
| iPod mini | 1G | | 4 GB | First release. Available in 5 colors. | USB or FireWire | 6 January 2004 | $249 |
|---|
| 2G | 4, 6 GB | Brighter color variants with longer battery life. Gold color discontinued. Clickwheel lettering matched body color. No AC adapter. | USB or FireWire | 22 February 2005 | $199, $249 |
|---|
| iPod nano | 1G | | 1, 2, 4 GB | First release. Successor to iPod mini. Slimmer design with flash memory, color screen and lyrics support. | USB | 7 September 2005 | $149, $199, $249 |
|---|
| 2G | | 2, 4, 8 GB | Anodized aluminium case in 5 colors. Brighter screen and longer battery life. | USB | 12 September 2006 | $149, $199 $249 |
|---|
| iPod shuffle | 1G | | 512 MB, 1 GB | First release. The iPod without a screen or scroll wheel. | USB | 11 January 2005 | $99, $149 |
|---|
| 2G | | 1 GB | Aluminum case with smaller dimensions and built in clip | USB | October 2006 | $79 |
|---|
|
Each new generation usually has more features and refinements whilst typically being smaller and lighter than its predecessor. Notable changes include the touch sensitive wheel replacing the mechanical scroll wheel, color displays with anti-aliased text, and
flash memory replacing hard disks. Their reliability has steadily improved, although there were some reported problems with the iPod shuffle. Discontinued iPods include four generations of the full-sized model, two generations of the iPod mini and the first versions of the nano and shuffle.
The first generation iPods were Mac compatible only. Apple later added limited Windows support and at this time, Windows users required third-party software such as
Musicmatch Jukebox, ephPod or XPlay to manage the music on their iPods. Musicmatch was included on the bundled CD. From July 2004 and onwards, every iPod was made fully compatible with either Mac or Windows, after Apple released the Windows version of iTunes on 16 October 2003.
Special edition and color variants
In December 2002, Apple unveiled its first limited edition iPods, with either Madonna’s, Tony Hawk’s, or
Beck’s signature or
No Doubt's band logo engraved on the back for an additional $49. At a total price of $548, these limited edition iPods were nearly the most expensive ever sold by Apple .
On October 26, 2004, Apple introduced a special edition of its fourth generation monochrome iPod, designed in the color scheme of the latest album by Irish rock band
U2. It had a black case with a red scroll wheel and the back had the engraved signatures of U2's band members. This iPod was updated alongside the iPod photo and 5
th generation iPod.
Apple has also released Special Edition
Harry Potter iPods. These are engraved with the
Hogwarts Crest on the back and are available only to purchasers of the
Harry Potter audiobooks. These iPods are also updated with each new generation.
The 1
st generation iPod nano and 5
th generation iPod were released in black and white variants. The 1
st and 2
nd generation iPod minis were offered in multiple color choices as well as the The 2
nd generation iPod nano which inherits it's case design largely from the mini.
Criticisms
Battery life advertising
Apple stated that the older original 5G 60 GB and 30 GB iPods had battery lives of "up to 20 hours" and "up to 14 hours" respectively, when used on controlled and limited tests. For real-world use, many users report battery lives of less than 8 hours with the 30 GB video iPod. Apple does provide advice for maximizing the battery life of the iPod.
A similar advertising strategy for a computer in 2003 resulted in the Independent Television Committee banning Apple's TV advert, due to it being too misleading. Also in 2003, class action lawsuits were brought against Apple complaining that the iPod battery charges lasted for shorter lengths of time than stated and that the battery degraded over time. The lawsuits were settled by giving individuals the options of getting $50 store credit or a free battery replacement.
Apple later complained that its competitor,
Sony, had misled consumers in its advertising for Sony's music player. Apple complained that Sony had not considered real-world usage.
Non-replaceable batteries
The battery in all iPods cannot be removed or replaced by the user without levering the unit open. This is unusually difficult for a consumer device, although some rival products have a similar enclosed battery. Compounding this problem, Apple initially would not replace worn-out batteries. The official policy was that the customer should buy a refurbished replacement iPod, at a cost almost equivalent to a brand new one. All lithium-ion batteries eventually lose capacity during their lifetime and this situation led to a small market for third-party battery replacement kits.
Apple announced a battery replacement program on 14 November 2003, a week before a high publicity stunt and website by the Neistat Brothers. The initial cost was US$99, but it was lowered to US$59. One week later Apple offered an extended iPod warranty for US$59. Third-party companies offer cheaper battery replacement kits which often use higher capacity batteries. For the most recent iPods,
soldering tools are needed because the battery is either soldered onto the main board, as with the nano; or attached to a metal backplate, as on the video iPod.
Bass response
The 3
rd generation iPod had a weak bass response, as shown in audio tests. The combination of the undersized DC blocking capacitors and the typical low impedance of most consumer headphones form a high-pass filter which attenuates the low-frequency bass output by up to 10 dB. Similar capacitors were used in the 4
th generation iPods. The problem is reduced when using high impedance headphones and completely masked when driving high-impedance loads. The 1G iPod Shuffle does not use blocking capacitors and thus does not exhibit reduced bass response for any load.
Equalizer
If the sound is enhanced with the iPod's software equalizer , some users have noticed that some EQ settings — like R&B, Rock, Acoustic, and Bass Booster — can cause bass distortion too easily. Using in the ear plug headphones with powerful bass response, the bass response of the iPod Nano appears distorted at the R&B equaliser setting . On 3rd generation iPod's which have a weaker bass reponse the R&B setting does not cause this distortion. In comparison an iPod nano using the Rock equaliser setting delivers considerably higher bass response than a 3rd generation iPod using the R&B setting.
The equalizer amplifies the digital audio level beyond the software's maximum level, causing distortion on songs that have a bass drum or use a bassy instrument, even when the amplifier output level is low. Notable song examples include Bob Sinclar's
Love Generation and Jem's
Wish I. One possible workaround is to reduce the volume level of the recorded MP3 by modifying each audio file. However, this cannot be done with DRM-encrypted music, and different tools are needed for each different file format.
Worker exploitation
On 11 June 2006, the British
tabloid Mail on Sunday reported that iPods are mainly manufactured by female workers who earn no more than US$50 per month. The report stated that the five-story
Longhua factory — which belongs to
Foxconn — houses 200,000 workers, with most of them living in dormitories that house 100 people. The report also claimed that visitors were not allowed and that the plant is secured by police officers. These allegations were denied by Foxconn but Apple investigated and discovered that employees worked more than 60 hours a week for a third of the time and worked for more than six consecutive days for 25% of the time. The workers, however, were not forced; rather they chose to work the overtime.
Patent disputes
In 2005, Apple Computer faced two lawsuits claiming patent infringement by the iPod and its associated technologies: Advanced Audio Devices claimed the iPod breached their
patent on a "music jukebox", while a
Hong Kong-based
IP portfolio company called filed a suit claiming that Apple's FairPlay technology breached a patent issued to inventor Ho Keung Tse. The latter case also includes the online music stores of
Sony, Real Networks,
Napster, and Musicmatch as defendants.
Apple's application to the
United States Patent and Trademark Office for a patent on "rotational user inputs", as used on the iPod's interface, received a third "non-final rejection" in August 2005. Also in August 2005,
Creative Technology, one of Apple's main rivals in the MP3 player market, announced that it held a patent on part of the music selection interface used by the iPod, which Creative dubbed the "Zen Patent", granted on August 9 2005. On May 15 2006, Creative filed another suit against Apple for patent infringement with the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Creative also asked the
United States International Trade Commission to investigate whether Apple was breaching U.S. trade laws by importing iPods into the
United States.
On August 24 2006 Apple and Creative announced a broad settlement to end their legal disputes. Apple will pay Creative US$100 million for a paid-up license to use Creative's recently awarded patent in all Apple products. Creative announced their intention to produce iPod accessories by joining the
Made for iPod program.
Sales
Since October 2004, the iPod has dominated digital music player sales in the United States, with over 90% of the market for hard drive-based players and over 70% of the market for all types of players. During the year from January 2004 to January 2005, its high rate of sales caused its U.S. market share to increase from 31% to 65% and in July 2005, the market share was measured at 74%. The release of the iPod mini helped to drive this success at a time when competing flash-based music players were once dominant.
In its first quarter results of 2006, Apple reported earnings of US$565 million — its highest quarterly revenue in the company's history although it's not known how much of this was attributed to iPod sales. Apple and several industry analysts have suggested that iPod users are likely to purchase other Apple products such as Mac computers.
On 8 January 2004, Hewlett-Packard announced that they would sell HP-branded iPods under a license agreement from Apple. Several new retail channels were used — including
Wal-Mart — and HP-branded iPods eventually made up 5% of all iPod sales. In July 2005, HP stopped selling iPods due to unfavorable terms and conditions imposed by Apple.
iPod sales according to Apple's quarterly financial results:
| Fiscal quarter | iPods sold |
|---|
| 2002 Q4 | 140,000 |
| 2003 Q1 | 219,000 |
| 2003 Q2 | 80,000 |
| 2003 Q3 | 304,000 |
| 2003 Q4 | 336,000 |
| 2004 Q1 | 733,000 |
| 2004 Q2 | 807,000 |
| 2004 Q3 | 860,000 |
| 2004 Q4 | 2,016,000 |
| 2005 Q1 | 4,580,000 |
| 2005 Q2 | 5,311,000 |
| 2005 Q3 | 6,155,000 |
| 2005 Q4 | 6,451,000 |
| 2006 Q1 | 14,043,000 |
| 2006 Q3 | 8,111,000 |
| Total | 58,912,000 |
|---|
|
Advertising
Apple has promoted the iPod and iTunes with several advertising campaigns including their
silhouette commercials:
November 2001
- A man dances to music while demonstrating the synchronization between iTunes and the iPod.
September 2002
- Switcher Campaign, Interviews with real people candidly discussing why they like their Macs and iPods and what they dislike about their PCs. The campaign includes Hamilton Morris and cult phenomenon Ellen Feiss.
April 2003
- Casually dressed people giving animated silent renditions of pop songs, to promote the iTunes Music Store. Songs included Sir Mix-a-lot's "Baby Got Back", The Caesars' "Jerk It Out", Eminem's "Lose Yourself" and others.
October 2003
- TV commercials of the silhouette campaign. Songs included The Vines' "Ride", Gorillaz' "Feel Good Inc.", Steriogram's "Walkie-Talkie Man", Jet's "Are You Gonna Be My Girl", Daft Punk's "Technologic" and many more.
October 2004
- Silhouettes of U2 band members performing their song "Vertigo".
January 2005
- TV commercials of dancers as silhouettes, with an iPod shuffle symbol moving underneath them.
June 2005
- On the "Petarded" episode of Family Guy, Stewie Griffin is shown dancing in his own iPod commercial as a spoof on the ever-inreasingly popular silhouette commercials by Apple.
September 2005
- Two pairs of hands fighting over an iPod nano whilst viewing it at different angles.
October 2005
- A music video of U2's "Original of the Species" playing on a video iPod. Alternative ads had a sihouette of rapper Eminem over an 'urban' orange background, and a silhouette of jazz musician Wynton Marsalis
...
over a 'cool blue' background. These backgrounds were more textured and complex than in previous ads.
March 2006
- Thousands of CD covers pouring into an iPod nano, with the song "Cubicle" by the French electro-rock band Rinôçérôse.
September 2006
- Silhouette of Bob Dylan performing the song "Someday Baby" from the album Modern Times. A dancer, also in silhouette, is shown dancing to the song.
- A new ad featuring the updated iPod nano. Silhouette dancers can only be seen when the cross the paths of color generated by their iPod nano. This features the song "The Audience Is Listening Theme Song" by Cut Chemist.
Earphones
The iPod's white
earphone cords have become symbolic of the brand, and advertisements feature them prominently. In fact, the earphones have such strong visual recognition characteristics that some have said they can be a liability. After a 24% rise in robbery and a 10% increase in grand larceny in the New York City subway, a spokesperson for the
NYC police suggested that iPods might be behind the increases.
Accessories
Several companies produce accessories that are designed to for iPods. This market is sometimes described as the iPod ecosystem.
Popular iPod accessories
| Accessory | Functionality Offered | Manufacturer |
|---|
External speakers
| Loudspeakers | JBL, Bose, Altec Lansing, Kensington, Apple, Logitech |
| Sound recorders | Record analog audio from a microphone. | Griffin Technology, Monster Cable |
| Portable battery rechargers | Recharge the internal battery "on the go". |
| FM radio tuners | Listen to FM radio, in-line control of iPod |
| Wireless remote controls | Control the iPod from a distance wirelessly. |
| Wired remote control | Control the iPod from a distance. | Apple |
| Winter sports jacket and backpacks with SoftTouch. | Control panel attached to apparel for remote control. | Burton |
| Cases and protective films | Protect the iPod against accidental drops and surface scratches. | Apple and many third party companies |
| iPod Camera Connector | Transfer photos from a digital camera or media card to a color screen iPod | Apple |
| Audio/visual cable | Output composite video and stereo analog audio
| Apple |
| Nike + iPod | Enable iPod nano to be used as a pedometer | Nike/Apple |
Car integration
BMW released the first iPod automobile interface that allowed drivers of newer BMW vehicles to control their iPod using the built-in steering wheel controls or the radio head unit buttons. Apple announced in 2005 that similar systems would be available for additional vehicle brands, including
Mercedes-Benz,
Volvo,
Nissan,
Alfa Romeo,
Ferrari ,
Acura,
Audi,
Honda ,
Renault and
Volkswagen.. Industry analysts predict Apple will take the next step and provide auto makers with an in-dash iPod system to futher improve integration as well as cement Apple's proprietary standards into the auto market.
In September, 2006 Apple announced that 70% of the car models offered for sale in the US in the next model year offer the ability to connect an iPod.
Some independent stereo manufacturers including Pioneer,
Kenwood,
Alpine and Harman Kardon also have iPod-specific integration solutions. Alternative integration methods include using adaptor kits , RCA inputs, or FM transmitters such as the
iTrip, although personal FM transmitters are illegal in some countries.
See also
References
External links
- — Official website
- — Official iPod specifications
-
- — Brent Schlender writing for Fortune October 30, 2001
- - The main website for ipod linux
- — Electronics and chipsets used in all iPods, also states current level of support for ipod linux.
- — Steven Levy writing for Newsweek is a weekly newsmagazine [i] published in New York City [i] and distributed throughout the ...
July 26, 2004 - — Ken Aaron writing for Cornell Engineering 2005
- Tracks the iPod from its birth to current day
- — Tracks iPod accessories and news from its birth to current day
