The iPod: Clean and Simple

Unlike many things in life – an ice-cream sundae, say – the desirability of a gadget depends on how small, clean and simple it is. Hence the success of the iPod. Remember cassette players? We’ve come a very long way.

iPod, and related marks such as iTunes and iPod Hi-Fi, are only a few among Apple’s enormous portfolio of nearly 300 trademarks and over 50 service marks, but they are important ones. The original iPod trademark, filed in October 2001, described the new technology as ‘portable and handheld digital electronic devices for recording, organising, transmitting, manipulating, and reviewing text, data, and audio fIles’. Such is the interest in Apple’s every move that when in June 2005 some observant technophiles noticed in iPod’s latest character mark a mention for the first time of ‘video’, Internet speculation became rife as to what new variation on iPod it would result in. Now that day has dawned, and you can download onto your iPod films as well as music from the on-line iTunes store.

But there are other technological giants out there, and any number.of them might have seemed, pre-iRevolution, more likely to corner the market in digital music. What made iPod the best apple in the barrel?

Much is to do with the character of its parent company, and its creator, Steve Jobs. Jobs, founder of Apple Computer Inc and a consummate public speaker, has been described as radiating a ‘reality distortion field’ which makes the impossible possible and, some would say, each new innovation appear more than the sum of its parts. Steve Jobs’ charisma is a major branding asset.

The cult of the Apple Mac
To get an idea of the Apple persona, one has only to look at the titles of some of the books that have been written about it and Jobs: Insanely Great: The Life and Times of Macintosh, the Computer That Changed Everything; The Cult of Mac; The Second Coming of Steve Jobs; and iCon Steve Jobs: the Greatest Second Act in the History of Business. Even the book titles give you some idea of the mythology of the brand, the figurehead and the company itself.

iPod’s novelty was accompanied by a very effective branding strategy. iPods are, the company makes sure you know, ‘designed in California’: home of the silicon revolution and the coolest and cleverest of America’s new elites.

A power struggle within Apple obliged Jobs to part company with the firm in 1985. But without him the magic just wasn’t quite there: 12 years later he was back, and more influential than ever. And, it’s said that it’s because of the refreshed vision which accompanied this new era that the revolutionary concept of the iPod was dreamt up. There lies the other reason for its success in 2001 the iPod was so new, so innovative, that it simply had no natural predators. Within four years, 20 million had been sold.

iPod’s novelty was accompanied by a very effective branding strategy. iPods are, the company makes sure you know, ‘designed in California’: home of the silicon revolution and the coolest and cleverest of America’s new elites. Apple is not just a company that makes gadgets; it is about a way of life – in theory at least.

Where next?
The iPod has been phenomenally successful, but it’s not been all plain sailing. Such a lucrative commodity was always likely to attract litigation, and Apple has sometimes suffered: in August it agreed to pay around £53 million to a Singapore-based company called Creative, which possesses a patent dating from 2000 on technology similar to the iPod. There was also a trademark dispute in the high court this year with the Beatles’ Apple  Corps record label over the apple logo as used by iTunes. But this time Apple (Computer) came out on top and iTunes was allowed to keep the distinctive image. There have also been accusations of poor labour conditions in iPod factories in China (Apple has launched an investigation), and questions over stock options. Moreover it’s now 2006, and in tecchy terms, iPod is ageing. Sales began to show a decline and industry watchers to call for something new from iPod.

But if there’s one thing Apple and Steve Jobs are known for, it’s tenacity. So where next? As we’ve mentioned, the newest runner in the iPod stable is video capability: users can now download Casablanca or Pirates of the Caribbean and watch it on the bus. A departure from music, but a logical one. Microsoft is among several companies challenging Apple’s dominance in the digital music market, but new models such as the second generation iPod shuffle and nano, and bigger memory capacity in the classic iPod, suggest that the company is remaining on its toes.

And so can we: there may be no replacement, sometimes, for an old vinyl record player, but the iPod’s original assets of neatness and manageability remove any excuse not to exercise. That’s how far the reality distortion field extends – it even makes jogging seem fun.

This article was first published in IP Review, issue 16