iPods
Treesa Kintrick

Form and Function Combined in iPods

Over the last five years or so since their first sale, Apple iPods have become one of the most recognized and popular music players since the Sony Walkman. What makes iPods so popular is partly the good timing in their release, right around the time where services such as Napster, which allowed music pirating, were being shut down. The concept of legal music downloading was ready to be brought to the forefront of the music scene, and Apple was there with iTunes and its iPods to meet the demand. But there was more than just good timing involved in the popularity of iPods. These music players have a solid, attractive design and are comfortable to use.

Music in Your Palm

Apple seemed to realize that in order to make truly portable music catch on, it needed to be able to fit in your pocket. Due to the necessary size for holding compact discs, Walkmans can’t fit that niche. But because digital music players are only limited by the size of the hard drive inside, Apple was able to use a small hard drive to make a player that was about the same size as a deck of cards. Other music players today may match iPods in storage space or even be able to play more file types, but even some of those don’t have the small size of the iPod. Apple further developed this concept with their iPod nano and shuffle, which both use flash memory instead of a hard drive, making iPods even more convenient and compact.

Easy to Use

In addition to small design, Apple chose a simple, attractive display for their iPods, with what’s called a click wheel to create a simple interface. There are actually five buttons on iPods, but the click wheel hides four of those; pressing in the right direction, such as with the direction buttons on a video game controller, will press the appropriate button. The fifth button is at the center of the wheel and is used mostly to confirm selections. The design is easy to use, since adjusting volume consists of running your thumb along circumference of the click wheel, similar to turning the dial on a stereo.

The interface between iPods and your computer is also handled easily, since music purchased for iPods is sold in the iTunes music store, which not only manages purchases, downloads, and acts as a music player on your computer, but will automatically detect if your iPod is connected and transfer your music library to it. By ensuring that the process of transferring music off your computer is easy to do, Apple has kept from driving people away with complicated procedures. It’s this combination of simple, easy to use design and portability that makes iPods such a desirable item today.

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