[iends]

Your last little blurb is off the mark: Mp3 players existed long before the iPod, but they had poor usability and no centralized store to legally purchase music. Bookstores existed long before amazon, but their inventory was limited. Blogging existed long before twitter, but it was a bit overkill to use existing solutions for micro-blogging.

[ahoyhere]

Yes, but everyone was happy with the status quo of MP3 players at the time. Nobody wanted the iPod. Everybody said it would fail. And certainly no one was asking for a centralized music store. Pfff!

I don't really agree with OC on other points, but the iPod really didn't scratch an itch. It changed the game by creating something new, not something that "solved a problem."

To say the iPod solved a problem is pure hindsight.

[gnaritas]

> Yes, but everyone was happy with the status quo of MP3 players at the time

No they weren't, most people couldn't figure them out.

> To say the iPod solved a problem is pure hindsight.

No it isn't, the iPod brought it to the masses by making it simple enough for everyone to use.

[silentOpen]

I have to disagree with you here. I had a couple MP3 players before the iPod and it was obvious that they were pieces of crap. Very obvious. I didn't know how to make them better. I knew that they had unnecessary pain in syncing, control, and storage space.

I don't own any mobile Apple products now but the iPod really did make portable digital music players mainstream through its cachet AND the problems it fixed.

[lacker]

A lot of people weren't happy with MP3 players at the time. It's not like they were extremely popular before the iPod. Specifically, before the iPod there was no MP3 player that could both fit in your pocket and hold your whole music collection.