iPod

The current iPod line; from left to right: iPod Shuffle,iPod Nano, iPod Classic, iPod Touch.

Developer

Apple Inc.

Manufacturer

Foxconn (OEM)[1]

Type

Portable Media Player (PMP)

Retail availability

October 23, 2001 present (first launched)

Units sold

Over 297,000,000 worldwide as of December 2010 (see chartbelow)

CPU

Samsung ARM and Apple A4

Online services

iTunes Music Store, App Store,iBooks, MobileMe, Game Center

(online services available only on iPod Touch)

iPod is a line of portable media players created and marketed by Apple announced on October 23, 2001, and released on November 10, 2001. The product line-up currently consists of the hard drive-based iPod Classic, the touchscreen iPod Touch, the compact iPod Nano, and the ultra-compact iPod Shuffle. iPod Classic models store media on an internal hard drive, while all other models use flash memoryto enable their smaller size (the discontinued Mini used a Microdrive miniature hard drive). As with many other

digital music players, iPods can also serve as external data storage devices. Storage capacity varies by model, ranging from 2 GB for the iPod Shuffle to 160 GB for the iPod Classic. All of the models have been redesigned multiple times since their introduction. The most recent iPod redesigns were introduced on September 1, 2010. Apple's iTunes software can be used to transfer music to the devices from computers using certain versions of Apple Macintosh andMicrosoft Windows operating systems.
[3] [2]

For users who choose not to

use iTunes or whose computers cannot run iTunes, several open source alternatives are available for the iPod. iTunes and its alternatives may also transfer photos, videos, games, contact information, e-mail

settings, Web bookmarks, and calendars to iPod models supporting those features. For iOS versions prior to iOS 5, the iPod branding is also used for the media player applications included with the iPhone and iPad; the iPhone version is essentially a combination of the Music and Videos apps on the iPod Touch. (As of iOS 5, separate apps named 'Music' and 'Video' are to be standardized across all iOS-powered products. ) In either event, the iPhone and iPad have essentially the same media-player capabilities as the iPod line, but they are generally treated as separate products. Discontinued models of the line include the iPod Mini and the iPod Photo, the former being replaced by the iPod Nano, and the latter reintegrated into the main iPod line (now the iPod Classic).
[4]

History and design

The iPod line came from Apple's "digital hub" category,

[5]

when the company began creating software for

the growing market of personal digital devices. Digital cameras, camcorders and organizers had wellestablished mainstream markets, but the company found existing digital music players "big and clunky or small and useless" with user interfaces that were "unbelievably awful,"
[5]

so Apple decided to develop its

own. As ordered by CEO Steve Jobs, Apple's hardware engineering chief Jon Rubinstein assembled a team of engineers to design the iPod line, including hardware engineers Tony Fadell and Michael Dhuey,
[6] [5]

and design engineer Jonathan Ive. The product was developed in less than one year and
[7]

unveiled on October 23, 2001. Jobs announced it as a Mac-compatible product with a 5 GB hard drive that put "1,000 songs in your pocket."

Apple did not develop the iPod software entirely in-house, instead using PortalPlayer's reference platform based on two ARM cores. The platform had rudimentary software running on a commercial microkernel embedded operating system. PortalPlayer had previously been working on an IBM-branded MP3 player

with Bluetooth headphones.

[5]

Apple contracted another company, Pixo, to help design and implement the
[5]

user interface under the direct supervision of Steve Jobs.

As development progressed, Apple continued

to refine the software's look and feel. Starting with the iPod Mini, the Chicago font was replaced with Espy Sans. Later iPods switched fonts again to Podium Sansa font similar to Apple's corporate font, Myriad. iPods with color displays then adopted some Mac OS X themes like Aqua progress bars, andbrushed metal meant to evoke a combination lock. In 2007, Apple modified the iPod interface again with the introduction of the sixth-generationiPod Classic and third-generation iPod Nano by changing the font to Helvetica and, in most cases, splitting the screen in half by displaying the menus on the left and album artwork, photos, or videos on the right (whichever was appropriate for the selected item). In September 2007, during a lawsuit with patent holding company Burst.com, Apple drew attention to a patent for a similar device that was developed in 1979. Kane Kramer applied for a UK patent for his design of a "plastic music box" in 1981, which he called the IXI.
[8]

He was unable to secure funding to

[8]

renew the US$ 120,000 worldwide patent, so it lapsed and Kramer never profited from his idea.

Trademark
The name iPod was proposed by Vinnie Chieco, a freelance copywriter, who (with others) was called by Apple to figure out how to introduce the new player to the public. After Chieco saw a prototype, he thought of the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey and the phrase "Open the pod bay door, Hal!", which refers to the white EVA Pods of the Discovery One spaceship. Chieco saw an analogy to the relationship between the spaceship and the smaller independent pods in the relationship between a personal computer and the music player.
[5]

Apple researched the trademark and found that it was already in use.

Joseph N. Grasso of New Jersey had originally listed an "iPod" trademark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office(USPTO) in July 2000 for Internet kiosks. The first iPod kiosks had been demonstrated to the public in New Jersey in March 1998, and commercial use began in January 2000, but had apparently been discontinued by 2001. The trademark was registered by the USPTO in November 2003, and Grasso assigned it to Apple Computer, Inc. in 2005.
[9]

The earliest recorded use in commerce of an "ipod" trademark was in 1991 by Chrysalis Corp. of Sturgis, Michigan, styled "iPOD".
[10]

Software
he iPod line can play several audio file formats including MP3, AAC/M4A, Protected AAC, AIFF, WAV, Audible audiobook, and Apple Lossless. The iPod Photo introduced the ability to display JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, and PNG image file formats. Fifth and sixth generation iPod Classics, as well as third generation iPod Nanos, can additionally play MPEG-4(H.264/MPEG-4 AVC) and QuickTime video formats, with restrictions on video dimensions, encoding techniques and datarates.
[11]

Originally, iPod software only worked with Mac OS; iPod software for Microsoft Windows was

launched with the second generation model.

[12]

Unlike most other media players, Apple does not

support Microsoft's WMA audio formatbut a converter for WMA files without Digital Rights Management (DRM) is provided with the Windows version of iTunes. MIDI files also cannot be played, but can be converted to audio files using the "Advanced" menu in iTunes. Alternative open-source audio formats, such as Ogg Vorbis and FLAC, are not supported without installing custom firmware onto an iPod (e.g.,Rockbox). During installation, an iPod is associated with one host computer. Each time an iPod connects to its host computer, iTunes can synchronize entire music libraries or music playlists either automatically or manually. Song ratings can be set on an iPod and synchronized later to the iTunes library, and vice versa. A user can access, play, and add music on a second computer if an iPod is set to manual and not automatic sync, but anything added or edited will be reversed upon connecting and syncing with the main computer and its library. If a user wishes to automatically sync music with another computer, an iPod's library will be entirely wiped and replaced with the other computer's library.