![]() The first generation iPod for Macintosh retailed at $399, had 5GB of capacity, and could store up to 1,000 songs. And, in October of 2001, when Apple announced the iPod, those pieces were solidly in place: both mp3s and broadband were finally widely available. He understood that, in order for the device to have value, other co-innovators in the mp3 player ecosystem first needed to be aligned. Steve Jobs knew that, on its own, the mp3 player was useless. How can we understand the iPod's success despite its delayed entry?Īpple waited, and then waited some more-until it finally made its move, putting the last two pieces in place to create a winning innovation: an attractive, simple device supported by smart software. But the iPod, launched in late 2001- three years after the MPMan-was anything but a first mover. The MP3 player market did eventually consolidate around a dominant product, Apple's iPod. Without the widespread availability of mp3s and broadband, the value proposition could not come together. It didn't matter that MPMan was first-it wouldn't have mattered if they were 6th, 23rd, or 42nd. Downloading an album-legally or not-could be a multi-hour affair. You couldn't purchase them in traditional retail settings. By the launch of the iPod in 2001, there were approximately 50 portable mp3 players available in the U.S.-and no firm had achieved anywhere near the dominance that the Walkman had enjoyed 20 years earlier.Ĭompared to the Walkman and cassettes, the story was very different for mp3s. It sold 50,000 players globally in its first year. In 1998, South Korea's Saehan Information Systems created the first portable digital audio player, MPMan. Which mp3 player would get there first and become the next 'Walkman'? ![]() But electronic firms around the globe were betting that the CD would soon follow the cassette into extinction. Jump ahead to the late 1990s, when the sun had set on cassettes as the favored music delivery format in favor of compact discs and, for the technologically savvy, digital mp3 files. (46% in Japan) in a space teaming with competitors, even as it enjoyed a price premium of approximately $20 over rival offers. For a decade after its launch, Sony's Walkman retained a 50% market share in the U.S. In 1979, the 'Walkman' was introduced in the Japanese market, selling out its entire stock of 30,000 units within the first three months. In 1978, engineers at Sony successfully married a compact playback device with lightweight headphones to create the prototype for a product that would become a worldwide hit.
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