iPod proves bigger isn't always better

In a society where value is linked to size, where bigger is seen as better, at least one pursuit in contemporary life keeps shrinking: listening to music. From records to cassette tapes to compact discs, the mediums for distributing music have inexorably grown smaller over the past four decades.

Nothing illustrates this miniaturization better than iPods, Apple Corp.'s gadget of the moment. Smaller than a pack of cigarettes and lighter than a can of beer, an iPod fits comfortably in a pocket or attaches snugly to a belt.

"I tell everybody that it's changing my life," says Matt Mager, 28, marketing manger/public relations for Belkin Productions, who uses his iPod at work, at home and even in his car. "I've taken 400 pounds of CDs and reduced that to 10 ounces. My CDs were falling all over my car. It's organized the favorite thing in my life, which is music, in the smallest possible way."

With the capacity to store approximately 10,000 songs, the iPod is the technological equivalent of a portable record collection. Available in three versions -- the regular iPod, the iPod mini and the iPod shuffle, ranging in price from $90 to $300 -- they dominate the market for portable digital-music players. Apple has sold 10 million iPods since the device debuted in 2001, and iPods account for 92 percent of sales of portable digital-music players, according to a recent article in MacNewsWorld.

"Clearly, Apple is on to something really big," says Larry Eakin, a technology analyst and senior vice president for Allegiant Asset Management Group. "They have a form factor that people like, it's hip and young people really like it. There are price points that people can afford, like the iPod shuffle, and also higher-end products that store more music. It's clearly been a lot bigger than anybody expected."

Even if iPods are mostly a triumph of style over substance.

Selling an image

David Farber has an intimate knowledge of the latest high-tech developments. At Bell Labs in the 1960s, he helped develop the first electronic telephone switches. His research on distributed computing in the 1970s helped foster the personal computer revolution, and he's also served as the chief technologist for the Federal Communications Commission.

Presently the distinguished career professor of computer science and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science, Farber isn't too impressed with iPods.

"What (Steve) Jobs did with iPods is create an image," Farber says of Apple's renowned chief executive officer and innovator. "And that image both certified the field and created a powerful marketing thing. It's a real cute device. But relative to its technology, there are much better around. ... It's like a Porsche Boxter; there are better cars floating around, but boy, it's sexy as hell. And that carries a lot of weight with people."

Farber admits to owning an iPod shuffle, the simplest and newest of the music players. Shaped like an oversized pack of Wrigley's chewing gum, the shuffle holds approximately 120 songs.

"It's a piece of crap, technologically," Farber says.

But if iPods are deficient, the general public doesn't seem to care. Partial credit goes to Apple's savvy marketing, most notably last year's ad campaign in conjunction with the release of the U2 album "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb." It was almost impossible to watch television for more than 10 minutes without hearing lead singer Bono counting off "Uno, dos, tres, catorce," the opening lyrics to the single "Vertigo," in an iPod commercial.

But there's another reason iPods have become omnipresent and a lifestyle choice like Thomas Edison's phonograph or the Walkman. Jeremy Horwitz, editor-in-chief of www.ipodlounge.com, an independent review of iPod products, says the first wave of users couldn't stop raving about the device, and that "positive word-of-mouth has continued to benefit substantially cheaper models, as well."

It also helped that there was nothing else on the market quite like the iPod.

"Apple's competitors released noticeably larger, clunkier MP3 players that could just barely fit into large pockets, and weren't easy for average people to figure out," Horwitz says. "They took three years to almost catch up with the iPod in form factor, and still haven't approximated its controls or interface."

Apple's other innovation was tying the iPod to iTunes software that enables users to download songs to the device and connect to an online music store. Like the Macintosh computer, another Apple innovation that required specific software, this bundling of technologies doesn't permit the use of other software or programs.

"Just to have an iPod without the iTunes store or an easy, cost-efficient way to get music into these devices wouldn't have worked," says Eakin, noting that this has held back other digital music ventures.

But bundling the iPod with iTunes also might turn out to be Apple's Achilles heel. The closed-world approach works only as long as the technology remains pre-eminent.

"This has always been a problem for Apple," Eakin says. "They've always had great technology but haven't always been smart about opening up their platform to the rest of the world. But I think Steve Jobs has gotten more religion on this and has seen what it's done to the company in the past."

Competition closing in?

The gap between Apple and its competitors is closing. Roger Dannenberg, an associate research professor in the school of computer science and the school of art at Carnegie Mellon University, says Apple's technology is no longer markedly superior.

"There are other -- just from a technology side -- MP3 players and other portable digital players that are essentially equivalent in terms of the technology and quality and everything else," Dannenberg says. But most consumers, Dannenberg adds, wouldn't notice significantly better quality in terms of sound.

"I feel like it's a good design, and you could build something better so audiophiles and a few people might appreciate better quality," he says. "But it seems like a lot of people are pretty happy with it."

Jack Wilson, shortstop for the Pittsburgh Pirates, has many of the latest tech innovations. His cell phone has an MP3 player, as does his Play Station Portable. He even has a pair of Oakley sunglasses with a built-in MP3 player that he uses when he travels.

But he uses his iPod the most.

"A lot of these MP3 players don't hold as much," he says of the amount of songs he can download. "The iPod holds my whole library."

Wilson admits he'll probably never use the iPod's entire capacity.

"I look at it now as a waste of money, because I realize I'll never have 10,000 songs," he says. "But it is the best MP3 player out there by far."

Social phenomenon

Paul Fitzsimmons, 26, plays guitar for the band Good Brother Earl and is an admitted iPod enthusiast. He has adapters for his car and home stereos and says he listens to music more than ever.

But his iPod has a more significant impact when Fitzsimmons teaches guitar. Instead of trying to anticipate a student's taste, he can take his iPod, plug it into the portable device and access just about any genre or style of music.

"If someone is paying me money, I need to be able to motivate them to learn, to be able focus a lesson along that line of motivation," he says. "So if they like Led Zeppelin, I have eight Led Zeppelin albums (available). If somebody else comes in and likes John Mayer, I have John Mayer. I see 30 students, and having the iPod and all these songs allows me to find common ground with 30 different tastes in music. I wonder how I did this before."

Like Macintosh computers, iPods have produced a subculture of devotees who find new uses for the device. Three years ago, two DJs in New York City loaded a pair of iPods with 1,000 songs and encouraged partiers to use a mixing table to switch between the two. Since then, iPod parties have spread across the country and around the world, from the pub Bourgie in Melbourne, Australia, to Khyber, a bar in Philadelphia.

But the most popular phenomenon is headphone swapping. When two iPod users meet, it's not unusual for them to exchange headphones and listen to each other's music, however briefly.

"It's happening with iPods because they've become so ubiquitous, and because they're the first popular device that lets you carry your entire range of musical preferences where you go," says Horwitz, admitting swapping is a surprising aspect of iPod usage. "If you see someone cute on the subway, you can play them a sappy love song instead of having to say what you're thinking."

Joe Rutter contributed to this story.