Connectivity (USB, rather than firewire) and more storage were certainly among the facets improved in subsequent versions. USB isn't wireless, but with USB rather than just firewire, the lack of wireless is less of a problem for mass market adoption, isn't it? I never had a nomad, I couldn't tell you how much storage they had, but I do know that my first ipod had a lot more than a measly 5GB; it was a 5th generation with 30GB.

ipod sales were basically fuck-all until Gen 4/5, meaning cmdrtaco was basically right for three or so years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ipod_sales_per_quarter.sv...

I don't think it a coincidence that Gen 4 and 5 were the first to fully support USB (gen 4 also supported firewire, gen 5 did not.)

The iphone took 6 quarters to breach 5 million sales per quarter (remember that as it was originally released, the iphone was an impressive touch screen web browser with subpar data and no appstore!) The ipod took 14 quarters to breach 5 million sales per quarter. After that, both took off. My point here, is the ipod was much slower off the line than the iphone. Simply put, it was lame (until it wasn't.)