After I purchased my first Walkman as a young person within the late Eighties, it was an excellent growth from carrying a big “boombox” stereo on my shoulders. Anybody who wasn’t alive on the time received’t perceive simply how liberating it was to instantly find a way hearken to music whereas strolling, jogging or travelling, and even simply in several rooms of the home.
As different codecs arrived, I saved returning to the Walkman as a result of it was a lot extra dependable than moveable CD gamers and extra reasonably priced than MiniDisc gamers. I used to be as in love with the system as Chris Pratt’s character within the movie Guardians of the Galaxy, whose house adventures are all the time accompanied by a soundtrack from his trusty Walkman.
Then, in 2001, got here the iPod, and all the things modified. Like many others, I lastly ditched my Walkman in favour of the system that made MP3 gamers mainstream. The iPod was a near-instant success and helped to relaunch Apple on a trajectory to turning into the world’s most respected public firm.
However now, 16 years later, the iPod as we knew it’s no extra. Apple just lately introduced it was ending manufacturing of the iPod Nano and Shuffle, which means the corporate will now not produce devoted MP3 gamers. (The remaining iPod Contact is actually a smartphone with out the power to make calls immediately from cell networks.)
This marks the tip of a real design traditional that may educate us an enormous quantity about make a profitable product. However on condition that music-playing smartphones and the iPhone-mimicking Contact have been fashionable for a great ten years now, maybe essentially the most fascinating lesson is in why Apple’s MP3 gamers have been round for therefore lengthy.
Deal with simplicity
The iPod, like many Apple merchandise, was well-known for its look, which adopted considered one of firm founder Steve Jobs’s key ideas. “Deal with simplicity,” he as soon as mentioned. “Easy could be tougher than complicated: it’s important to work laborious to get your considering clear to make it easy.”
The traditional options of the iPod have been its easy rectangular show and iconic round management panel on a plain white physique. These have been in comparison with the design of the 1958 Braun T3 transistor pocket radio created by Dieter Rams. They helped make the iPod seem timeless whereas additionally turning it right into a trend assertion for individuals who needed one thing elegant and completely different.
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However Jobs additionally made one other essential and inspirational level: “Design is not only what it appears like and looks like. Design is the way it works.” The iPod functioned like most different MP3 gamers in the marketplace however had a novel and far easier navigation system. The progressive scroll wheel eliminated the irritating must spend a very long time clicking buttons to search out every music.
The iPod additionally had different practicalities. Its giant reminiscence meant most individuals might save all their music to the system. Integrating it with the iTunes software program made importing music a easy activity, and making it appropriate with PCs vastly expanded the market of potential prospects.
The iPod story gives a great lesson to each product designer to concentrate on the expertise of customers, the aim of the design and to have a transparent imaginative and prescient mixed with simplicity.
Closing stage
It additionally neatly illustrates the method of a product lifecycle. Each product has 4 life phases. Introduction, when the brand new product arrives to market. Development, when customers begin to purchase increasingly more of the product. Maturity, when product gross sales grow to be fixed and attain regular state. And decline, which is when the know-how turns into out of date and changed by merchandise with higher know-how and extra options. Obsolescence is why some merchandise are discontinued even when many shoppers love them.
The iPod Nano and Shuffle discovered themselves competing with smartphone know-how that gives added performance and adaptability. After I just lately requested my ten-year-old son if he would need an iPod Nano, he defined his iPod Contact lets him play video games, watch YouTube and speak to his buddies over the web, in addition to hearken to music. And most adults will merely use their smartphones for all these features.
Apple additionally had an incentive to discontinue the Nano and Shuffle as a result of the Contact is manufactured utilizing comparable elements and methods to the iPhone and so advantages from decrease prices due to economies of scale. Promoting fewer Nanos and Shuffles makes their elements and meeting dearer.
So why, when Apple was making iPhones and touchscreen iPods for the previous decade, did the Nano and Shuffle final so lengthy? Apple had loyal prospects who thought of having the brand new model of the iPod product a trend assertion. By regularly innovating and including new options, colors and design choices by way of a number of generations, the corporate was in a position to hold demand for the units alive.
However we’ve now reached a stage now the place the varied iPhone and iPod Contact fashions present such a variety of performance and adaptability by way of a normal, acquainted software program (and at a spread of costs) to cowl virtually all the things that’s wanted by Apple prospects. This has lastly made the Nano and Shuffle redundant.
