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Understanding the user who isn't you

iPod

 

The iPod

The iPod has extended the personal stereo trend started in the 1979 by the Sony Walkman. One of the interesting things about its rapid uptake was that people wanted the device with its massive capacity even though many have relatively little music to download to it. Even its sibling mini iPod Shuffle is over specified for most users. (It’s a bit like the washing machine with 15 programs, of which you actually use two or three.) All this highlights the appeal of the iPod at levels beyond its basic functionality: the way it looks, the jog wheel interface, the shuffle function, the promise of downloading music from the web  (even if only a minority take it up), the sense of identity it imparts.