iPods - a retrospective of single purpose devices

All major design revisions of the full sized iPod - minus the 2nd gen

I once heard someone say they missed the late 90s and early 2000s because we had technology which impacted our lives just enough to improve them, without controlling them. That idea is very much part of this article and my thoughts.

I use an iPod in 2021, and more people than you may think do the same; in fact the use and modification of these obsolete devices is a growing hobby. When I joined the iPod discord in late 2019, there were around 2000 members, same goes for the subreddit, now there are close to 12 and 15 thousand members respectively. 

We've all read the lists: "Why I use an iPod in 2021", they all bring up the same points surrounding the storage and battery life. However, one point which gets made and which I think is more interesting is how they like that no one can interrupt their music; there are no notifications and there are no calls - the iPod is a single purpose device. That's the key point, a single purpose device. 

In 2021 we just don't see these anymore, and why would we? People don't want to carry an MP3 player, cellphone, laptop and map when they can have a smart phone which does all this and more. So is it a sense of nostalgia? A longing for a simpler time and a fond memory of old folks who don't understand social media? Here's the thing: it's anything but. Most members I speak to are younger, in their teens and just using iPods for the first time. Even those who are older seem to be into these devices for more than just nostalgia. 

"Working from home like it's 2003"
- u/rollmastr on Reddit

I asked if anyone over the age of 20 wanted to share their experiences with iPods; being over that age would have meant growing up and seeing iPods in ads at the height of their popularity.

User "Roscoes" said: "[the] only experience I had before this month was that a friend once brought an ipod in 6th grade and showed it off"

User "notapotato" said: "I used friends' iPods back when they were popular, I only ever had the Sansa SanDisk mp3 player. I've always been into ipods, I just couldn't afford them back in the day." 

I fall into the same camp as these two people, I'm 18 and I never had an iPod when they were popular, I had various cheap portable radios, and a fake iPod at one point, but never a real one. I remember really wanting one but having no music to even use it with. But I remember wanting a lot of things, none of which I've gone back to and bought now, despite them probably being cheaper than the iPods I have. So why iPods?

I think this shows more than just a liking for these old devices. Apple's design's have always been simple, but smartphones are complex by design, and many younger people have never experienced the simplicity of older devices which had a specific purpose. It is extremely refreshing to have a device which does one thing and does it really well. Sure, your phone has a spirit level on it, and newer versions of iOS have an app which can measure things, they're convenient; but given a phone and a spirit level, you'd choose the latter, and that's what's so great about iPods.

Another example of this is ebook readers such as the Amazon Kindle, you can read those same ebooks on your phone - Amazon even offers a Kindle app, but I've never met a single person who's done this. An ebook reader simply does this better, with features such as a matte, e-ink screen which is easier on your eyes. The difference between these and iPods is that music on your phone is good enough for most people; ebooks on a phone screen are not.

So what point am I trying to make here? I think that using iPods as a case study in single purpose devices shows that people may not want all the features that a smartphone offers; they sure as hell don't need them all. And while Apple is going some way to streamlining their smartphones, by removing things such as the Stocks and Newstand apps, there's only so far they can due to the nature of smartphones. We exist in a year where you can buy a smart fridge - besides the bathroom, there isn't one room in my house that doesn't have an internet connected device in it. By taking a step back and realising how increasingly connected our lives are getting, it really isn't hard to believe that people may want an escape, a way to do something without your attention being dragged to social media. The user "Kitpost" says "I like them because they just work" - and I think this nicely sums up iPods and their users in 2021; when you've got 10 minutes between classes or meetings, a device "just working" can be the difference between listening to a few songs or sitting in silence. I believe they were also quoting Steve Jobs, who frequently described Apple's products as being ones which "just work", a design choice which has been lost in recent years with the need for an internet connection and countless dongles, not just with Apple's products - we've seen this trend in the rest of the tech industry.

Will flip phones come back and will Apple start producing the iPod again? No, but I think the increasing levels of connectivity in our lives is definitely a trend, rather than something that will stick around and "change your life" as some marketing departments would have you believe. In ten years we will still have smartphones, or whatever the next new version of those is, but here's to hoping our fridges will exist without screens, and that our music players work without an internet connection.