ClickWheel control wheel

The first iPods (1G) did not yet have a touch control wheel; they used a mechanical rotating target surrounded by buttons arranged in a circle. The rotating target was used to scroll through the menu, the center button confirmed the selection, and the buttons arranged in a circle were used to skip tracks and play them. The second generation came with a touch wheel called solidwheel instead of a mechanical rotary wheel, which wore out quickly after a year of use. However, the touch surface was also very inaccurate and prone to failure, which did Apple a disservice. In the third generation of iPods, the controls were redesigned so that the control buttons themselves were located in a row below the display. Apple finally found the Holy Grail of iPod control with the iPod Mini, which featured the now-famous click wheel, a circular touchpad combined with buttons for controlling the iPod. The center button for confirming selections remained. At the same time, Apple completely redesigned the touch controls. The Click Wheel was subsequently adopted by all other iPod series equipped with displays, with the exception of the 2007 iPod Touch, which was equipped with a touchscreen display.

Steve Jobs originally wanted to introduce the iPod in September, but two circumstances thwarted his plans. The first was an unexpected error in the firmware of the iPods being manufactured. They discharged even when turned off, so their battery life was only about three hours. This was a problem that Apple worked intensively to resolve with PortalPlayer representatives. Production had to be halted, and it took several weeks to resolve the issue. Another delay came in mid-September when it became apparent that the first iPods could not be shipped to the US due to the suspension of air travel after the attacks of September 11, 2001.

And so Steve Jobs introduced the iPod on October 23, 2001, at a product presentation to which he sent out invitations hinting that “it won’t be an iMac.” It wasn’t. On stage, Jobs patted his jeans pocket and said, “I’ve got it right here in my pocket.” “I can fit a thousand songs in my pocket,” he continued, completely stunning the invited journalists.

But that was the better part of the response. Apple systematically invited a sympathetic audience to such product presentations at the time, so the standing ovation may not have meant anything. Worse was the storm of criticism that swept across the internet. Analysts were not very convinced that a device priced at $399 would sell very well. At the time, the dollar was selling for CZK 37, so the price on the Czech market would have been CZK 15,000 before tax, which was really a lot.

Image: 01original_ipod.tif

Caption: The first generation of iPods had not yet become famous; they were sold until mid-2002.

The response was diametrically different. Some condemned the iPod simply because it was expensive. Others pointed out that there was no comparable device on the market and that the closest competitors in terms of performance, the PJB-100 and Archos Jukebox, weighed twice as much, had slow data transfer speeds, and were not that much cheaper. Comparing the iPod with MP3 players equipped with limited 32 or 64 MB memory was not fair to either side.

All in all, the world was not convinced that Apple had found a solution to squaring the circle, improving its financial balance sheet, helping musicians distribute their music, and offering customers a groundbreaking product.

Among the many criticisms, it is worth mentioning the opinion of Martin Lér, then editor-in-chief of the Czech website MůjMac.cz, who wrote in an article after the iPod was unveiled: “In any case, the iPod disappointed when it was launched – Apple deliberately created an atmosphere of tense anticipation and then presented a product that failed to live up to expectations – even though it is described as groundbreaking, revolutionary, sensational, and so on. In the case of the Power Mac Cube, we at least had the feeling that we were looking at a gem from a certain point of view – both in terms of design and technology, and in the case of the new iBook, the excellent price/performance ratio was absolutely clear. However, at first glance, this MP3 player does not evoke any of these impressions.” Martin Lér later explains that this is his personal disappointment; he simply expected more from Apple at such an event.

Apple began selling the iPod in the US on November 10, 2001, and sold a total of 125,000 units by the end of the year. By comparison, it sold 746,000 Macintosh computers and earned $38 million in the last quarter of 2001, a nice change from the $195 million loss for the same period in 2000. The situation was improving, but the iPod was not a sure thing.

Let’s recap the advantages of the iPod:

attractive appearance
small size of the cigarette box and low weight (180 grams)
up to 10 hours of music playback, fast charging
easy to use, works with external software
extremely fast data transfer via FireWire
plays songs without skipping when bumped
sufficient memory capacity to store 1,000 songs

And now its disadvantages

Only for Mac, does not support Windows
relatively high price of $400.
Few technical features, such as no recording, no music transfer from iPod to computer, no FM radio, etc.
No belt clip or case (a surprisingly common complaint among reviewers)
problems with the control wheel

From the overview, it is clear that the iPod was a unique device in terms of performance when it was launched, but its main disadvantage was its exclusive connection to the Mac platform. This had its technical justification, apart from Jobs’s disregard for Windows: in 2001, Windows computers could only use the slow USB 1.1 port and were rarely equipped with a FireWire controller.

Shortly after the launch, it became clear that demand for the iPod among PC users would be high, and internal discussions about whether to release one of the company’s crown jewels on a competing operating system ultimately (and perhaps surprisingly) ended with the decision to make the iPod compatible with Windows. However, as is well known, Apple did not get along with the Windows platform and never developed anything for it. So he decided to establish cooperation, albeit somewhat looser than in previous cases. Jobs felt it would be better to stay away from Windows. So he agreed with Musicmatch to add support for the iPod to its Jukebox software, which was already used to manage Creative MP3 players and was the best MP3 player manager for Windows at the time. In July 2002, Apple introduced the second generation of iPods, known as iPod 2G, and announced that Windows users could also use iPods with Musicmatch.

However, there is a catch: official Musicmatch support for iPod only includes Windows 2000, the professional version of Windows at the time. Home users, who typically use Windows 98/Me, are out of luck due to problematic FireWire drivers. At least officially, that is; the internet is full of instructions on how to get Windows 98SE to work with iPod. When we add the not-so-intuitive and convenient Musicmatch software and the persistent limitations of FireWire, it’s no wonder users are frustrated. On top of that, Windows XP is coming.

The bet on a third party, which Apple would not need to win over, and Jobs’ unfocused attention on the launch of the iPod for Windows ultimately hurt both the product and the company. Something had to be done about it. However, launching official iTunes support for Windows also had political consequences. Jobs was working on launching an electronic music store, which was later named the iTunes Store. At the time, this was not an easy task, either from a programming or, above all, a political standpoint. Tough negotiations with music companies, which at the time were terrified of “pirate” activities such as Napster, Kazaa, and peer-to-peer networks in general, Jobs managed to break the deadlock by pointing out that by joining forces with Apple, they would enter the limited world of creditworthy users and gain experience in selling music in a closed and well-protected ecosystem on a very attractive music player. The limitation to the Mac platform was an important argument in the persuasion strategy. At that time, most music publishers, especially Sony Music, were trying to create their own digital music sales strategy and still believed they could succeed. It was tempting to try selling to Mac users with the charismatic Jobs, who gave his all and was willing to make a number of concessions on DRM implementation. And so, on April 28, 2003, Apple launched the iTunes Music Store—the word “Music” was later dropped from the name when the store began selling music videos and movies. The Store feature is available in the new iTunes 4.0, which is available for immediate download for all Mac users. Other new features in version 4 include the ability to share music over a network, a feature that Jobs had to remove a month later (limiting it to home networks only) because it could have caused music publishers to have a fit.

At the same time, Jobs introduces a new line of third-generation iPods, which not only feature a touch-sensitive control wheel and a redesigned interface adapted for touch control, but also allow data synchronization via USB. The docking connector replaces the original FireWire cable. The price also drops and the available capacity increases to 40GB.

Image: 03ipod_frontbuds.tif

Caption: The third generation iPod has a touch wheel and a redesigned interface and controls. It remained on the market in two revisions from April 2003 to mid-2004.

On its launch date, the iTunes Music Store offered a total of 200,000 different songs, and Jobs’ persuasiveness and the benevolence of music publishers went so far that songs could be purchased individually, not just entire albums. This was something that music companies and musicians themselves had previously rejected, arguing that an album was a complete work of art and that individual songs would not provide the listener with the desired experience. However, Jobs pushed through the sale of “singles” at a uniform price of 99 cents. But this was just an experiment on a platform with a limited user base, he explained to music publishers.

The context of this story

ClickWheel control wheel

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