The iPod had many innovations to its design. Of these advantages, iPod’s unique Firewire technology helped make it stand out from its competition. Firewire is an Apple developed technology that connects an iPod to a Macintosh computer so one can download information. 1 The reason why this technology stands out form the competition is its speed. According to costumer review, MP3 players at this time would take up to four hours to download music. The iPod with its firewire technology only took about half an hour to download. This was monumental in a few ways. It does not matter how small a MP3 player is if it takes too long to download music. This is because it detracts from the mobility of the devise. The iPod’s small size and fast downloading rate of music helped make it successful. This rapid download time let people quickly pick and download music rather than wait four hours. 2 People where no longer limited to only picking a few songs because of time restraints. Rather, people could take their time in picking what music they wished to listen to.
Even though our society keeps inventing so called “time saving devises” it still feels that it does not have enough time in the day. MP3 players at this time took a substantial amount of time to operate and use. This caused many people to not invest time in created an individualized playlist. Yet the release of the iPod would change this. The rapid download capability of the iPod’s Firewire allowed people to really customize and make their own palylist. The iPod helped make a person’s music playlist more personal and meaningful. Other MP3 players could not give consumers the quick download rate of the iPod which made people not willing to spend more time with them to make a playlist. The iPod Firewire technology substantially helped people make custom playlists.
1. Apple Special Event 2001 – The first iPod introduction (part 1) & Apple Special Event 2001 – The first iPod introduction (part 2) [Video]. (2001). Retrieved Sep 23, 2011, from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bz1ZWvZBGYM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpHaa8lokGM
2. Kranzl, Justin. 2002. “IPod wannabe?.” Australian Personal Computer no. 288: 50. Computers & Applied Sciences Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed October 12, 2011).
3. Photo from Apple Computer, Inc. . iPod . 2001. http://web.archive.org/web/20011130083929/http://www.apple.com/ipod/ (accessed Nov 23, 2011).
The Apple Renaissance through iPod 