[toyg]

They could have easily hired a specialized company to receive masters and send them digitized versions. They weren't as ludicrously opulent as they are today, but they were still a pretty wealthy and profitable company.

But why pay, when you can get your own vendors to do it for free after a little song and dance by the Jobster? That's much more Apple.

[SyzygistSix]

Not even free. Vendors needed to purchase Apple hardware, did they not?

[rrdharan]

The iPod helped save Apple. IIRC it, even more than the iMac, helped return them to profitability.