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Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduces the iPod on Oct. 23, 2001. — AP
WASHINGTON — Apple’s popular iPod brand of MP3 player marked its fifth anniversary yesterday as a cultural phenomenon that helped bring music into the digital age and reap billions of dollars in sales for the U.S. company.
The California-based computer maker launched its mini music player on Oct. 23, 2001, and has never looked back as sales of the trendy gadget have continued to skyrocket.
Apple shipped more than eight million iPods during its fiscal fourth quarter, marking a 35-percent increase over the year-ago quarter, according to the company’s latest earnings statement.
“This strong quarter caps an extraordinary year for Apple,” the company’s chief executive Steve Jobs said last week, noting that the group had sold more than 39 million iPods during the past year.
And the sleek little music player has already become the “first cultural icon of the 21st century,” according to Michael Bull, a media lecturer at Britain’s University of Sussex, who is researching the social influence of the iPod.
Apple has shored up the diminutive music player’s popularity and ease of use by making it compatible with Windows PCs. In 2003, the company launched its iTunes online music store, enabling iPod devotees to download their favourite hits.
Current visitors to the iTunes store can also download films and popular television programs.
However, industry competition is mounting, and software giant Microsoft announced in September that its Zune MP3 music player will hit U.S. stores on Nov. 14 as it seeks to challenge iPod’s grip on the lucrative market.
South Korean electronics giant Samsung has also started marketing its own MP3 player called the YP-Z5 in a bid to challenge Apple’s dominance over the music-player market.
Part of the iPod’s success can be attributed to its small size — the smallest model easily fits in a shirt pocket — and its hefty memory that allows owners of the larger models to store up to 20,000 songs.
Indeed, the iPod has become so ubiquitous that Mazda, General Motors and Ford recently teamed up with Apple to provide iPodcompatible equipment in their cars.