IOS 5 Ushers in the End of the iPod Era

On October 23, 2001, Apple had asked the world to say ‘goodbye to your hardrive’ with the debut of the first iPod, a consumer device that propelled the digital music revolution and made Apple a household name. Nearly a full decade later, Apple continues to ask the world to bid adieu to their hardrives, nevertheless this time with iOS 5 and iCloud, the iPod chapter may be coming to an end as Apple is now focusing on connected devices in the iPhone and iPad.

iOS 5 will signal a new era in Apple’s history as the company is no longer pre-loading iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads with the ‘iPod’ app. Instead, music and video will now be broken up, each with their respective Music and Video app, and purchases are on the whole handled on the iTunes app as so then as the App Store for apps.

While the iPod franchise will continue for some time into the future, the change marked by iOS 5 signifies Apple’s less reliance on the iPod franchise. Sales of portable music players have declined in recent years, and companies have migrated away from stand-alone devices like MP3 players in favor of connected, multi-purpose devices like the smartphone. That’s no surprise given that the smartphone market had made the PDA business extinct some years ago. Given that the iPod brand and franchise was so important and iconic for Apple, its slow death shows that the iPhone and iOS platform is both mature and ready to bring a whole new era of ‘post-PC’ computing for Apple.

The first iPhone

In launching the first iPhone, Apple had relied on the iPod brand to bring in clients. The first iPhone was described as the best iPod, and Apple had tried to give the PMP market a new lease on life by switching to touchscreen innovation with the iPod Touch. Now, a few years later, the important function–music playing–of an iPhone is no longer as important for consumers. Apps, the mobile web, and instant access to information, content, and the world through news and social networks are now defining the iPhone generation. During geeks clamor about high-end features like multitasking, tethering, and openness, consumers actually just care about connecting, and like as not that’s the defining characteristic of the iPhone–the phone and its mobile broadband modem.

So during the iPod kept your music on your device, the iPhone brings it to the cloud. During the iPod made music personal with cool, iconic white earbuds, the Phone dares you to blast your music through built-in speakers and public playlists on Pandora and Last.fm. And although the iPod promised an endless playlist with mass gigabytes of storage through huge, but small hard drives, the iPhone’s svelte flash storage and cloud streaming dares you to live on the wireless edge.

Gadget junkie writing about tech

A gadget junkie writing about tech. Having grown up in Silicon Valley, I have discovered my passion and love for innovation. Inspired by a vision of a really mobile lifestyle, I began my foray into mobile tech with the PDA era. Afterwards owning my first Palm Pilot, my obsession expanded to include UMPCs, tablets, MIDs, smartphones of various platforms. And in spite of what some may call a tech addiction, the best moment of my week is while the weekends when I get to shut off my gadgets and spend time with family, friends, and loved ones in sunny California. As software, hardware, and the emerging cloud become better evolved, someday, there will be that perfect mobile device that will certainly help people to balance work, life, and fun, melding the physical world with the digital. Hit me up on Twitter @chuongvision or Skype.