Predictions
So I was doing my usual morning scan over at digg and caught this article: Top 87 Bad Predictions about the Future and one of the comments led me to the original Slashdot post regarding Apple’s announcement of the iPod back in October of 2001:
Posted by CmdrTaco
on Tuesday October 23, @12:20PM
from the well-thats-not-very-exciting dept.
The BrownFury writes “At an invitation only event Apple has released their new MP3 player called the iPod. iPod is the size of a deck of cards. 2.4″ wide by 4″ tall by .78” thick 6.5 ounces. 5 GB HDD, 10 hr battery life, charged via FireWire. Works as a firewire drive as well. Works in conjunctions with iTunes 2. Here are Live updates“. No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.
Some of the better comments:
Agree with the article poster – Lame. Not only is this a lackluster MP3 unit (which by virtue of being firewire will be limited to Apple Mac owners), but it has virtually no UI wizardry that might define it as an Apple product.
A total waste of time.
Here’s one that could’ve been posted a few weeks ago after the iPod HiFi and iPod leather case announcements:
Apple is being distroyed by the rumors that are being created. When they announce that they are going to have a new product, everyone thinks it’s going to blow their worlds. Rumors start flooding in about even the most outragous products ( I even heard a few “sources” mention teleportion) This is getting plain stupid.
Apple is a normal company. Why does the public constantly expect them do the impossible?
My favorite:
Raise your hand if you have iTunes …
Raise your hand if you have a FireWire port …
Raise your hand if you have both …
Raise your hand if you have $400 to spend on a cute Apple device …
There is Apple’s market. Pretty slim, eh? I don’t see many sales in the future of iPod.
To be fair, I initially viewed the iPod with apathy, but I didn’t take the time post my thoughts. Maybe I was too busy coming to terms with the impending death of the BeOS which I had predicted several years earlier would be the next big thing. I’m not so good at predictions myself.