Apple Introduces What It Calls an Easier to Use Portable Music Player (2001)

Well, the first generation iPod wasn't compatible with Windows and a FireWire port was required. The second gen iPod came in two versions: one for Mac, and one for Windows. iTunes for Windows came a year after that. It wasn't until the third gen that iPods became compatible with USB. In the fifth ten iPod (end 2005) that became the only way to connect an iPod to a computer. By then, the iPod provided more revenue than the sales of Macs did, but those saw enormous growth as well -- which is largely attributed to 'the halo effect'. [1]

[1] http://www.asymco.com/2011/07/26/apple-has-moved-on/

That is pretty crazy, to think that the iPod was initially introduced at the same price as the iPad today.

It's been interesting to see the progression of Apple's pricing strategy. Up to that point they were always expected to focus on the high-end of the market.

Two things changed after the iPod 1) they successfully began competing on lower price points as well, eventually capturing 75% or so of the MP3 market and 2) they began releasing products that undercut previous products, think Apple TV and iPad.

The big question for Apple's future is whether they will be successful in competing on the low-end of the market or be pushed back to the high-end only by Android and others.

I did the same thing! To save the reader the work:

IDC predicted in 2001 that the mp3 player market in 2005 would be around 18M devices. In 2005, Apple alone sold 31M iPods.

It was useless to Windows users when it was launched. It wasn't compatible.

I wouldn't be so quick to condemn him as the line that preceded your quote was, "Apple said it had not yet decided whether to introduce a version of the music player for computers with the Windows operating system, which is used by more than 90 percent of personal computer users."

If Apple hadn't made iTunes available for Windows machines, there's a very likely possibility that the iPod wouldn't have taken off the way it did.

They were right: no one bought the first gen iPod. It wasn't until gen 3, when full Windows compatibility was introduced, that the sales numbers really started to matter.

Gartner does consulting, but they mostly provide analysis of IT-related stuff. Think of them as a "Enterprise" Ars Technica who pushes specific products, and whose analysts you can pay to call for a 30-60 minute presentation.

Probably 70% of their business is producing analysis that allows people in the government or large companies to justify buying things. Google "Magic Quadrant", which is a gartner thing that lets lazy IT executives pick a list of vendors from a checklist.

Like anyone who tries to predict the future, Gartner gets things wrong all of the time -- they base most of their conclusions on client interviews and vendor dog and pony shows. That said, they do collect good information and you get alot of good insight from talking to the analysts.