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| 2016-10-24T21:22:19.000Z | Apple Introduces What It Calls an Easier to Use Portable Music Player (2001) | http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/24/business/technology-apple-introduces-what-it-calls-an-easier-to-use-portable-music-player.html | daschaefer | 305 | 234 | 1477344139 |
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Apple Computer introduced a portable music player today and declared that the new gadget, called the iPod, was so much easier to use that it would broaden a nascent market in the way the Macintosh once helped make the personal computer accessible to a more general audience.
But while industry analysts said the device appeared to be as consumer friendly as the company said it was, they also pointed to its relatively limited potential audience, around seven million owners of the latest Macintosh computers. Apple said it had not yet decided whether to introduce a version of the music player for computers with the Windows operating system, which is used by more than 90 percent of personal computer users.
''It's a nice feature for Macintosh users,'' said P. J. McNealy, a senior analyst for Gartner G2, an e-commerce research group. ''But to the rest of the Windows world, it doesn't make any difference.''
Steven P. Jobs, Apple's chief executive, disputed the concern that the market was limited, and said the company might have trouble meeting holiday demand. He predicted that the improvement in technology he said the iPod represented would inspire consumers to buy Macintosh computers so they could use an iPod.
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There are several categories of digital music devices, including players that use flash memory, which are small but expensive. Another competing player relies on magnetic hard drives, which are typically larger in both capacity and size, and thus are enclosed in larger gadgets. The market for all such devices is growing and is expected to be around 18 million units by 2005, according to IDC, a market research firm.