2006年NPR美国国家公共电台十月-iPod Digital Music Player Turns Five

On Mondays, the Business Report focuses on technology and that is appropriate because this Monday is the birthday of iPod. The digital music player debuted 2 five years ago today. Here's NPR's Laura Sydell.

The singer Madonna has never been one to miss out on a trend. The iPod is no exception. When Madonna finally let the online iTune store carry her music, she made an appearance via videophone at the 2005 Macworld Conference in San Francisco. Apple CEO Steve Jobs asked her if she had an iPod.

Of course I do.

Which one?

That's so dumb (thanks to google).

The iPod has become a symbol of the fusion 3 of music and technology. But it wasn't the first MP3 player on the market. There were others, says industrial designer Mark Dirsk.

There were a lot of MP3 players that were (like) overly styled Ferraris with multiple buttons and nobody could figure out how to do.

Five years ago today when Steve Jobs introduced the iPod he dwelled on its beautiful design and simplicity 4.

It's stainless 5 steel. It's really, really durable 6. It's beautiful. Boom, that's iPod. I happen to have one right here in my pocket, my friend.

67 million of the digital music players have been sold to date according to Apple. Industry analysts 7 say the iPod has cornered 75% of the MP3 market.

But a visiting professor at Carnegie Mellon University says with the iPod, Apple made the experience of downloading music to a portable player easy.

They have managed to take the technology out of the experience itself. The experience really has everything to do with the music, and anything beyond that falls to the side. You are really about getting your music, accessing your music and the culture that surrounds that.

It wasn't hard to learn to use the iPod. Connect it to your computer, buy some songs at the iTunes store, or rip them from CDs you own. The wheel on the front of the digital screen made it easy to find songs. With the first iPod, users could hold 1,000 songs in their pocket and listen without recharging the battery for 6 or more hours, although there had been complaints that the batteries don't last as long as advertised. Rubber Briner, an industrial designer who once worked at Apple says there is a reason the company was able to succeed while others had failed. Steve Jobs, notorious perfectionism, and his emphasis on the consumer experience.

If you cannot open the box up and take it out and look at a few things on the" how to get started" card and be up and running. I feel like somebody hasn't done their job, and that's why I think Apple has always been really great.

Apple has also done a remarkable 8 marketing 9 job, says Briner. With hip 10 colorful iPod commercials where the iconic white earbuds hang down from the heads of dancing figures. Even prominent pop musicians like Bob Dylan have performed in ads.

But what goes up can indeed go down.

The iPod has its vulnerabilities. Since it created the iPod five years ago, Apple has just streamlined the original design and come out with variations on the theme. Video capabilities 12, the Nano, the Shuffle 13, industrial designer Mark Dirsk says sometimes success can stifle 14 creativity even at an innovative 15 company like Apple.

They are the grand-daddy out there right now. They're gonna have some trouble staying fresh with that unless they take the same kind of risks that they did before.

Dirsk and others say Apple will also have to see if the design lendss itself to new technologies. Microsoft will be coming out with a competing player in November that will allow users to exchange songs wirelessly 16. While competing companies are looking for a design that will be the next hit, pictures of the most touted 18 competition, the anticipated Microsoft Zune, show it looks an awful lot like the iPod.

Laura Sydell, NPR News, San Francisco.
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Vocabulary
appropriate: suitable, acceptable or correct for the particular circumstances.
debut 1 : v. to perform or be performed in public for the first time:
He debuted at Carnegie Hall in New York in 1994.
miss out: to lose an opportunity to do or have something:We will be repeating the questions later. So you won’t miss out.
fusion noun. the process or result of joining two or more things together to form one:the fusion or copper 19 and zinc 20 to produce brass 21. The movie displayed a perfect fusion of image and sound.
dwell on/upon sth: to think or talk a lot about sth, especially sth it would be better to forget: So you made a mistake, but there’s no need to dwell on it.
corner the market (in sth): to get control of the trade in a particular type of goods: They’ve cornered the market in silver.
iconic adj. acting 22 as a sign or symbol of sth.
streamline 11 v: to make a system, an organization etc. work better.The production process is to be streamlined.
stifle v. to prevent sth from happening; to prevent a feeling from being expressed: She managed to stifle a yawn. / They hope the new rules will not stifle creativity.
lend sth (to sb/sth)|lend (sb/sth) sth: to give a particular quality to a person or a situation: The setting sun lent an air of melancholy 23 to the scene./ Her presence lent the occasion a certain dignity.
tout 17 v. to try to persuade people to buy something by telling them about it, especially loudly and inpublic.
dumb often offensive1. lacking the power of speech 2:SILENT 3: STUPID - dumbly adv.