At my house, we love iPods.
I’ve lost count (literally) of how many iPods we’ve had. I know I’ve had at least six, my three sons have had at least seven between them, and my wife is on her first. Which makes somewhere around 15 total. One was stolen, one died a horrible death sitting in an inch of water in a car cup holder for several days, and another was accidently run over. A few were sold on eBay over the years to finance upgrades to the latest and greatest.
But enough is enough. I avoided going to the nearby Apple store for some weeks after the introduction of the Nano for fear that I would be ‘forced’ to buy one by the gadget monkey on my back. And when I finally had to go there to help a friend pick out a new Mac, I stayed strong and resisted the urge to add one to my collection. But my self-discipline was wasted, as that same friend gave me a shiney new Nano for my birthday just two days later.
With this new one, I’ve currently got four (shown above). I suppose I’ll sell the Shuffle, as I’m cheating on it with the sexy new Nano. The 20 GB 4-g model mostly lives in my car. And the original 5GB I keep for its ‘historical’ significance; it’s a pre-production model that I got when I worked on the beta team for the first iPod.
I have to admit that I still like the original scroll-wheel the best (the kind that actually turns). The newer click-wheel is a work of genius, but there’s still nothing like physical feedback.
Apple has a long history of making their earlier products look lame whenever they introduce something new; thereby compelling loonies like me to buy a new one. Guess I just have to get used to the idea of buying a new iPod every year.
[...] sibility, or even better the service to legally acquire feature films I think I can resist replacing my Photo iPod with a Video iPod. I hope Apple finds a way to make this happen, as I am aware that is [...]
That’s a cool picture. Well, think, Apple can’t really do much more with the iPod. It has music, pictures, movies. What else is left? Unless they have it so you can have the entire Mac OS X on it, I think it has lived it’s life to the fullest. Really the only things that they can do to it are maybe make the iPod smaller, and that’s about it. Keep up the good work!
That 20 gig you keep in your car looks an awful lot like a 4-g
Charlie, thanks for pointing that out; too much coffee I guess (or not enough).
Mike
15 ! iPODS… only an Apple employee could afford that many iPODS…
At $250 for the cheapest that’s still almost $4000 in iPODS for god’s sake!
While I like the cool idea of the IPOD, I still think it’s become or will shortly become the symbol of DRM and consumer lock in. Not to mention the MILLIONS that are quickly clogging up landfill sites all over North America because consumers somehow see these $300 plus music players as virtually disposable items.
If the music industry was smart they would start giving away MP3 players with the albums pre-installed. Of course they’d more then likely impose some really stupid DRM and EULA on their “customers” but most music downloaders are DRM pigeons anyway and would likely not notice the restrictions until is was too late. Then they’d shug and more on to the next DRM enabled (err-crippled) device.
Welcome to Life – Pay-As-You-GO!
Matt – you forgot to calculate the ‘eBay factor’. I figure it usually costs me $100-125 to upgrade to a new iPod after selling the old one on eBay. Besides, those fifteen iPods were spread between the five people in my family. Mike
I have an iPod monkey too. I’ve tried to sedate it, but it keeps waking up. Nice friend you have there, giving you an iPod! Hope it steers clear from coffee and cars
What is the net amount of money your family has spent on iPods, iPod accessories, and iPod-related services over the years? This question is not meant as an attack, by any means. I think we should all be asking ourselves tough questions about our technology-buying habits.
I had a tendency to overspend on technology and also to underestimate the total (”life cycle”) cost of each purchase. MP3 players and laptop computers were the final nails in the coffin. After spending inordinate amounts of money on top-of-the-line products from the best companies (and later, on compatible accessories), I am disgusted.
My 17-year-old portable cassette player and 13-year-old portable CD player still work. My 5- and 1-year-old MP3 players are obsolete, and even if they weren’t, they are not nearly as durable. My desktop computers still contain a few standard components bought 7 years ago. My latest laptop — just 3 years old — is obsolete and has a thermal problem. The obsolete features can’t be upgraded and the hardware problem isn’t worth fixing. (Incidentally, I am skilled at electronics and so have the benefit of being able to take things apart and fix them, or at least see how they are built.)
More than other devices, MP3 players and laptops are designed around proprietary and/or non-replaceable components. Either the battery isn’t standard, the memory is soldered, the small-form-factor hard drive is too expensive to be worth replacing, or the accessory connector(s) have become dated. These are the most expensive examples of planned obsolescence I’ve seen in 25 years as an electronics consumer.
Is it really worth it?
Hi Mike!
I’m writing a paper about the iPod in the same way as you are doing with your book! Thanx for bringing the idear! It really works well. Good luck with your book. I love to read about your experiences at Apple!