Written Analysis 3-1

The iPod is a current popular culture item. The iPod was launched in October 2001 by Apple, Inc. iPods come in a variety of colors, from plain black and white to chrome pastel colors. There are various versions of iPods. There is the iPod classic, the iPod Touch, the iPod Nano, and the iPod shuffle. The features of the iPods can vary depending upon the type of iPod you own. Some iPods, such as the shuffle only play music. However, other iPods store and play music, videos, pictures, and books.

The iPod is sold worldwide. There have been millions of iPods sold since the portable music players went on the market. They are the best known portable music player and the best selling music player. However, Apple has had its various struggles with negative publicity surrounding the iPods. Apple has been criticized because the batteries in the iPods cannot be replaced by the consumer. Some iPods had the capability to replace the batteries with third party instructions and batteries, but the newer iPods have the batteries soldered into the iPod, which makes it impossible to replace the battery. Apple would rather have the customer purchase a refurbished or new iPod rather than replace the battery.

iPods play music that has been purchased from the iTunes store, which is a company of Apple. The average purchase price for a song is $.99. The drawback to purchasing iTunes music is that you can only play music that was purchased on iTunes on an iPod; the music is not compatible with other portable music players. Music that is purchased from other sources can be converted to an iTunes format, but there are some companies that are direct competitors to iTunes that is not compatible with the iPod music format.

There are various accessories that can be added to the iPod, such as a docking station, remote controls, FM radio tuners, and wireless earphones. Now some car manufactures are making car stereos iPod compatible that you can connect your iPod directly into your car. I do not see in the near future the popularity of the iPod to decrease. It will be something that will be widely owned by at least one member of each household.

References

Wikipedia. (2009). Wikipedia. Retrieved June 2, 2009 from the Wikipedia website found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ipod#cite_note-0