[Documentary] The iPod Revolution
From what I could research, on December 27, 2006, Discovery Channel aired the documentary “The iPod Revolution: Inside Story of the Apple iPod and Steve Jobs.”
This documentary is very well produced. In 40 minutes it sums up Apple’s history from 1997 to 2006, covering almost a decade that runs from Steve Jobs’ return to the launch of the iPod and the huge success of the iTunes Music Store. And that’s only half the story: the iPhone wouldn’t be revealed until January 2007, so the plot is even bigger.
I always recommend researching this story because it’s very interesting and engaging. For more details, read the books:
- The Perfect Thing: How the iPod Shuffles Commerce, Culture, and Coolness – by Steven Levy.
- The Cult of the iPod – by Leander Kahney, who also appears in the documentary.
- iCon Steve Jobs: The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business – by Jeffrey Young and William Simon.
Since I always show this video to friends who get curious, I decided it was past time to subtitle it. Not everyone I show it to works in tech, and go figure, English is a problem, but that’s another subject. If you want the subtitle file, I created a Gist with it. To subtitle it I used Miyu, to render the subtitle onto the video I used Submerge, and I finally uploaded the whole thing to my account on Blip.tv. Watch it below:
Of course, the video is the property of Discovery Channel, with all rights reserved. This material should not be used for commercial purposes. It’s already available on several other sites, but I’ll take it down if needed. If I do, there are still other sources, for example on YouTube:
- The iPod Revolution – Part One
- The iPod Revolution – Part Two
- The iPod Revolution – Part Three
- The iPod Revolution – Part Four
- The iPod Revolution – Part Five
But the story is much more interesting than that. I’ve read and watched all the available material on the subject since 1983. Searching around, I found some pieces of this story on YouTube too. Here are more video links:
1983 – In this keynote, a young Steve Jobs, who had just turned Apple into a superpower, talks about his plans for a new computer to launch in 1984. It’s an epic speech. At the end he unveils the most famous commercial in the world, 1984, directed by Ridley Scott and shown only once, during the following year’s Super Bowl.
Boston Macworld 1997 – Steve Jobs was pushed out of Apple in 1985 and returns more than 11 years later to a devastated Apple, losing $1 billion a year, with people like Michael Dell saying If I were Apple, I’d shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders. He lays out the problems, points to Apple’s still-strong assets, and sketches a recovery strategy that runs flat against every “analyst.” I recommend it to anyone who cares about management: how to get back up after a fall.
Macworld 1998 – A year after his return, Steve had already reshaped all of Apple and launches the first product that marks the reboot: the colorful iMac. It was a machine aimed mainly at the nascent consumer internet market. Bear in mind, it’s still the early days of the first internet bubble.
iPod Introduction 2001 – Clip from the presentation where Steve shows the iPod for the first time. It was a closed event inside Apple’s campus, for invited journalists only. The first day of a revolution none of those present could have imagined.
iTunes Store Introduction 2003 – With software like Napster and Limewire letting people download music for free, how do you sell a system where you have to pay for music? This video shows how Steve pulled it off. The most important part was bending the Big 5 of the music industry into accepting a single flat price for individual tracks and albums, and getting artists to break albums apart and sell individual songs.
“iPhone Introduction 2007” – This one is genius. After two and a half years working in secret, amid all the growing rumors about an iPod-phone, watch how Steve redefined the smartphone market. One fundamental point: control of the handset had always belonged to the carriers, but Steve negotiated an unprecedented contract with Cingular (today AT&T) where the phone stayed under Apple’s control. That meant no pre-installed marketing apps and nothing of the sort. This year the exclusivity contract with AT&T ended, and Apple just announced the CDMA iPhone for Verizon’s potential 93 million customers.
“iPad Introduction 2010” – Here he reveals the iPad, which everyone said would be bad, would never catch on, would be no fun. Today it’s a sales record and was voted product of the year.
“The Fall and Rise of Apple” – A summary of the fall and how Apple got back up, in the broader context of the market and its products:
To close: in the documentary, Apple starts 1996 in terrible shape, losing $1 billion a year, with shares falling to $17 each. Now, at the close of the last quarter of 2010, it sold 16.24 million iPhones in that quarter alone, plus 7.33 million iPads, 19.45 million iPods, and 4.13 million Macs. Again: in the quarter alone.
So far Apple has sold more than 14 million iPads since the launch, back in April of last year. And the share price is now $340. Whoever bought in 1996 and held saw their capital grow almost 80 times in 15 years, counting the splits Apple did in 2000 and 2005 (via @cassiozen’s comment below). An excellent investment.