Another showcase of Apple’s design skills: the USB stick-of-gum iPod!
Look here – we’ll have nothing said against the first-gen iPod Shuffle, which turned 20 in January. Sure, it was a bit weird to see Apple selling an iPod without a screen … or a scroll wheel … or any apps … or even basic playlist management.
But you could argue that iTunes filling it at random with songs from your collection was remarkably prescient. After all, who bothers managing music these days? We all just use a streaming service and have it pump whatever it chooses into our ears.
I have more discerning tastes. Plus, the Shuffle looked like the Siri Remote. Bleh!
Well, the iPod Shuffle is a better design than the Apple TV zapper – at least when holding it you can instantly figure out which way up it is. Anyway, Apple quickly built on the first version: 18 months later, a radically different follow-up emerged in the shape of a clip you could attach to your clothes or, if you were feeling particularly weird, your earlobe.
Admittedly, the need for an oddball proprietary docking station was annoying, but it showed that Apple really did have some amazing design skills. So there.
Explain the third-gen Shuffle, then – that was the most ‘Apple’ iPod ever, and in the worst possible way.
Fair enough – v3 was an innovation too far, not only removing the screen but also the controls, and making the device small enough to lose down the back of an atom.
Still, Apple soon realised its error and released a masterful new take on the clip design, which was sold for nearly seven years. And all the Shuffles were pretty much indestructible: you could hurl one out of the window or run it over with a car and it’d be just fine. Try that with your shiny new smartphone.
