“I still can’t believe this! All this hype for something so ridiculous! … I want something new! I want them to think differently! Why oh why would they do this?! It’s so wrong! It’s so stupid!”
Sound familiar? That wasn’t a reaction to yesterday’s Apple iPad launch, that was a MacRumors commenter in 2001 reacting to the launch of the iPod. The iPod, the device that symbolized personal electronics more than any other product in the last decade, was widely criticized when it was unveiled. It was “just another MP3 player.”
One notable detail in comparing the history of the iPod with the new iPad: iPod sales were no big deal until three years after the product was launched. There was no iTunes for Windows until two years after the iPod came out – the iPad already has a thriving app store. (See this conversation on Hacker News for more snarky historical perspective.)
Thus while these old comments about the iPod are humorous in retrospect, the history of the iPod is a reminder of just how much has to go right for even a revolutionary Apple product to really explode. There may be a lot of us who wait for the iPad 2.0.
“I’d call it the Cube 2.0 as it wont sell, and be killed off in a short time… and it’s not really functional. Uuhh Steve, can I have a PDA now?” That’s what they said then. Will we look back in 10 years at today’s complaints about the iPad missing a camera and chuckle in the same way? Maybe not about the camera, but the missing Flash support? Now that might seem silly in retrospect.
