iTunes, iPod, and iTunes Store
By
Jennalyn Balanga
What started the project of iTunes
• By 2001, Apple had revived its personal computer
was a centerpiece of the digital revolution –
wanted to set a new possibility
• Steve Jobs noticed the trend in 2000 where
people were downloading music either from CDs
or file sharing and burning it onto blank CDs
• Blank CDs- 320 million sold , 281 million ppl in US
• Added a CD burner to its Mac but wanted it to be
simple to transfer music or burn music.
How did the project evolved
• Did research and observe other music apps – Real, Jukebox,
Windows Media Player…saw it was complicated &&
thought half of the features were difficult to understand
• Bill Kincaid - former Apple Software Engineer who heard
about the portable music player called the “Rio”
• Rio- portable player that played mp3s
• From this idea, Jobs wanted to be able to create an
interface for the “Rio”
• Asked Jeff Robbin and Dave Heller who are software
engineers to create a way to download music for “Rio”
• They created “SoundJam” for “Rio” so it'll run on their Mac.
• Soundjam- interface for Rio
• Apple bought Soundjam in July 2000,
• But wanted it to be specific whether your
searching for an artist, song, genre, album
• So started a project soon to be known as
iTunes by transforming Soundjam into a Apple
product
• Revealed iTunes in Jan 2001
iPod
• After the iTunes was launched, the next step
was to make a portable music player
• Realized they had an opportunity to design a
device that works with their iTunes.
• Ipod was born making Apples not just a
computer market but into being the world’s
most valuable company
• Job also had passion in his work especially in
music
iPod: Project Breakdown
• Jobs began pushing the portable music player in
Fall of 2000
• Yet, Jon Rubeinstein didn’t think it was possible
because of components weren’t available
• So Jobs waited for few more months to get
started on the project
• Rubeinstein found a small LCD screen and a
rechargeable lithium-polymer battery
• Problem: finding a disk drive with enough
memory to store the music
Fixing the Problem
• By February, Rubeinstein went to their Apple
supplier in Japan and at the end of his trip he
had a meeting with Toshiba
• At the meeting they announced a new
product they had in their labs that was est. to
be ready by June.
• It was 1.8 inch drive that held 5GB of storage
• Reported back to Steve Jobs about his new
findings while in Japan.
• “I know how to do it now,” Rubinstein told
him. “All I need is a $10 million check.” Jobs
immediately authorized it.
• Rubenstein negotiated with Toshiba to get the
rights of the newly created device. Success.
• Getting the project started, Jobs hired Tony
Fadell to the project because of his experience
• Made him the project leader
• Fadell hired 20 people for the project to create
a portable music device
• Jobs wanted this project to be launched by
Christmas and announce the device by
October
• Few months working on the project, Steve Jobs,
Tony Fadell, Jonathan Ive(designer engineer) and
Phil Schiller had a meeting on what was created
so far.
• Steve Jobs wanted to see objects not just slides.
• Tony Fadell showed him his 3 models that was
suggested and needed approval on which
direction to go
• Phil Schiller showed his model what needed to be
added to the device: a trackwheel
• Jonathan Ive thought of the design of the iPod
– Thought of the color white..PURE white
Fadell 3 Models
• First model:
– Removable memory card for music
• Steve Jobs thought it was complicated
• Second Model:
– Dynamic RAM Memory
pro: cheap in cost
con: Lose all of the saved songs if battery ran out
• Steve Jobs was not pleased
• Third Model
– Put together a what a device would look like with a
1.8 inch hard drive
• Steve Jobs was happy about this model
Phil Schiller: track wheel
• Thought of how users
would go through the song
list
• Simplest and easiest way to
do so
• Track wheel was different
• By turning the wheel, you
can scroll as fast as you can
or as slow as you want
• Be able to zip through
hundreds of songs instantly
• After the meeting on what directions to go,
• The team continually worked on the project
• The name “iPod” was proposed by Vinnie
Chieco because Jobs needed a way to
introduce the new device
• Several back and forth conversations with
Steve Jobs Innovative ideas he came up during
the process
– Changes in the devices he thought wasn’t right
• Ipod was launched on October 23, 2001
Final Product
• a drive that would hold a
thousand songs
• an interface
• scroll wheel that would let
you navigate a thousand of
songs
• a FireWire/USB connection
that could sync a thousand
songs in under ten minutes
• a battery that would last
through a thousand songs.
New Versions?
• Steve Jobs and his team: Rubinstein, Fadell,
and Ive were able to keep up with new
versions of the iPod
iPod Mini
Announced in January
2004
1st generation: Released
February 20, 2004 (4GB)
2nd Generation:
Released: the following
year (4GB &&6GB)
Discontinued on
September 07, 2005
Replaced by iPod Nano
Size: Business Card length
iPod Nano
Currently has 6
Generations
1st Generation:
Released Sept 07, 2005
(1GB – 4GB)
Current: 8GB or 16GB
Wanted to create a
small device that can fit
in your pocket
iPod Shuffle
Introduced in January
2005
Current 4th model :
released September
2010
Smallest model in the
Apple iPod family
iTunes Store
• CD sales were down 9% in 2002
• Jan 2002 Meeting: Paul Vidick of Warner
Music, Bill Raduchel of AOL time Warner
wanted Steve Jobs/Apple to work with them/
eventually agreed to working with them
• But ended up spiltting up to complication on
deciding on policies and how they should go
about it
• So Steve Jobs created an iTunes store
iTunes Store
• Steve jobs had to persuade the 5 top record companies to allow
digital versions of their songs to be sold .
• Doug Morris head of Universal Music group had a contract but
didn’t continue in the 2007
• Proposal was to sell digital songs for 99 cents and companies would
get 70 cents of that
• Wanted to not jus sell albums but single songs
• At first Music companies wasn’t fond of the idea until Steve Jobs
told them about his iPod and his iTunes store
• March 2002 Jobs wanted to have a meeting with Schuler and Vidich
and the head of Warner music , Roger Ames
•
• Launched April 28, 2003
Window + iTunes
• Windows companies noticed that Apple was
beating them in sales
• Steve Jobs thought it was a good business
sense to make it available to windows
• Would bring in more profits
• Allow the iPod to work with Windows
• Using MusicMatch
• Gave them the instructions on how to connect
to the device
• Steve Jobs would also need to go back to all
the companies that agreed to put their music
in iTunes Store to be notified about the
changes
• Steve Jobs had to renegotiate with those
companies
• Problems arises when Sony's felt Steve Jobs
was changing the terms after it was finalized
• Other companies didn’t mind
• iTunes was launched for Windows in October
2003
Final Product
• Own your songs
• burn them on CDs
• be assured of the download quality, get a
preview of a song before you download it
• Use it with your iMovies and iDVDs to “make
the soundtrack of your life.”
• Each song: 99 cents
Success of the iTunes Store
•
•
•
•
•
Started with 200,00 tracks
Sold 1 million songs in the 1st 6 days
70 million songs in the 1yr
By Feb. 2006 sold it 1billionth songs
Became a trusted with user online identities and
payment info
• Built a database of people who trusted Apple
with their information
• By June 2011, had 225 million users in the
database