Comment by mind_heist | Hacker News Reader

Comment by mind_heist | Hacker News Reader

''It's a nice feature for Macintosh users,'' said P. J. McNealy, a senior analyst for Gartner .

I am not completely sure what the tone of the comment here is. But I assume the analyst was trying to say the iPod was "Nothing more than a nice feature" for Mac users. The stock price fluctuates a lot depending on what Analysts say, having worked for a couple of post IPO companies - I notice these comments really do make a difference.And especially if you are newly-IPO'ed company - it can make or break the "market perception" of your company , and consequentially the "stock price" , and it drags your company into a downward spiral independent of how good you might be doing on field.

Out of curiosity - I tried looking up the Analyst quoted in this article , his personal website popped up a bunch of NSFW images! And the firm he consults for "http://www.digitalworldresearch.com/" does not even have a website built.

It just feels terrible (and happy at the same time) to read an article from the past where analysts who are proclaimed to be experts in a certain segment are grossly wrong.

I think that was a direct response to the then-Mac-only nature of the iPod. Initial criticism (referenced in the article) was that Apple/Jobs initially had not yet decided whether or not to release a Windows version of iTunes.

I think in that light, McNealy's point is pretty spot on. I assume that, initially, the iPod sparked some new Mac sales, but overall most Windows users weren't going to jump ship to Mac just so they could use the iPod. Apple's later release of iTunes for Windows is an admission of that. I can't imagine the iPod continuing to do as well as it did if iTunes had been Mac-only.

(And imagine if the iPhone required a Mac!)

Pretty sure that Jobs believed the iPod would attract people into Mac ecosystem and Windows compatibility was completely out of the question.

"While it seems a given that the iPod was to be made compatible with Windows, Jobs was very resistant to the idea. At one point he said that Windows users would get to use the iPod "over my dead body". After continued convincing, Jobs gave up: "Screw it," he said at one meeting where they showed him the analysis. "I'm sick of listening to you assholes. Go do whatever the hell you want.""[1]

That one phase, go do whatever the hell you want, literally changed the world. Win32 iTunes led the way for the success of the iPod and eventually the development of the iPhone. Think about the alternative path for a moment.

[1] http://www.macrumors.com/2011/10/25/steve-jobs-biography-wha...

I remember installing a FireWire card in my PC and buying some really shoddy software to copy MP3s onto it. Lots of PC owners were willing to jump through hoops to get the iPod.

The context of his comment is important here. The first iPod could only sync with Macs over Firewire, which only had been included in some Macs for 2 years at that point. There was a strong perception at the time that the iPod was not a standalone product, but a Mac accessory.

Indeed sales were pretty mild till USB and iTunes for Windows were introduced a few years later. Sales didn't really start to pick up till the 4g was introduced in late 2004.[1]

[1]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/34/Ip...

Remember, this was the era where "Apple are doomed" was the attitude applied to everything Apple did. Most analysts were dismissive of Apple because they expected Apple to disappear.

It looks like his site has been hacked

cached: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:d8pfB8V...

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