Silicon Insights: From Walkman to IPod

Dec. 14, 2001 -- During a trip to Japan many years ago, I had the privilege of dining with the late Sony CEO Akio Morita.

Although Sony has had many leaders throughout its history, perhaps none have been more important to the company then Morita. As the father of the Sony Walkman, he put Sony on the music map and made the company a household name.

But at the time the Walkman was introduced, Sony was in financial trouble and Morita told me that among Sony's management his decision to make and introduce the product was very controversial. Most of their directors wanted him to concentrate on their TVs and mainstream video products.

But Morita believed that music was such an important part of any culture that if he could only find a way to make music more portable or mobile, he would have a hit on his hands. Thus the Sony Walkman was born and the rest, as they say, is history.

Following the Walkman Legacy

Fast forward to today, when MP3 players have sprung up from the Walkman legacy. With the advent of digital technology, and more importantly, digital audio downloading and custom music, mobile MP3 players have now become one of the hottest items within the tech world.

While many MP3 players have hit the market over the last three years, none has garnered more attention than Apple's iPod, with its revolutionary approach to digital music storage.

This hot new MP3 player is now selling on the market for a rather steep $395. As you might know, there are many other MP3 players on the market already and some, with small memories, sell for as little as $99.

But the iPod is very different from the other MP3 players in two distinct ways. The first and perhaps most impressive differentiation is its storage medium. While most MP3 players use flash memory for storage, the iPod has a 5 gigabyte hard drive inside and can hold up to 1,000 songs.

I only have about 250 songs in my playlist and the iPod was able to store all of them with room for 750 more. This is by far the most storage available on any MP3 player and is why the iPod costs so much. The sound quality is also worth the price.

A Mac-only Machine

The iPod has one other distinction that is both a blessing and a curse. As of now, the iPod is designed to work just with Apple's Macintosh computers and their iTunes software.

If you have a Mac, this is great news. Besides having the most powerful MP3 player with the most storage available on a single device, it works easily and flawlessly with Apple's great iTune software.

In fact, this is a key part of Apple's way to make their product more unique than ones designed to work with a PC. Using simple drag and drop features, uploading and managing music is clearly the easiest on the Mac platform.

But the problem arises if you want to have a great MP3 player like the iPod but only have a PC. As of now, it will not work with a PC. I am told, however, that by Christmas, a third party solution to connect the iPod to a PC should be out, as long as your PC also has what's known as a Firewire.

The use of a Firewire, technology for connecting the iPod to the Mac, is just one more thing that makes the iPod great. It makes uploading even large amounts of music very fast. In fact, if you tried to download 1,000 songs over a conventional USB port it could take all night. But with Firewire's blazing transfer speeds, those 1,000 songs are transferred in about 10 minutes.

The iPod really is a revolutionary MP3 player that sets it apart from any other on the market today. And Apple's way of making it work seamlessly with the Mac platform gives them quite an edge on the competition when it comes providing their customers with a really great and easy to use digital music experience.

Tim Bajarin is a consultant and leading computer industry analyst and futurist, covering the field of personal computers and consumer technology. He's based in Campbell, Calif.