The Ipod

The Ipod. The music player that dominated and led to the transformation of an industry. But what is so special about it?

First, one must look at its signature wheel. The wheel that differentiated it from all other digital players then or after. The wheel was an beautiful and functional design that made "A thousand songs in your pocket," possible. Before the Ipod wheel there were only arrow buttons. Press it once and you move to the next song. Imagine how unusable the iPod would have been if one had to scroll one song at a time through the entire list of songs. The wheel allowed the user to seamlessly and quickly navigate to a location in their playlist. It was a brilliant and different design. Not only does it cater to our instincts (we naturally like round things) but it is just fun to use.

The iPod also had a huge impact on the music industry. With its creation came the creation of iTunes which was one of the first legitimate music purchasing sites. iTunes partnered with the music industry in a way that had never been done before. Making it possible for people to easily and relatively inexpensively get the songs that they wanted.

The iPod is recognized for its usable design that took it above and beyond other players but also for the infrastructure that was created around it.