Have you used the previous generation of MP3 players? I had one with a tiny LCD screen that would only fit half the song title (no space for the artist). To go to then next song, you had to press the "next" button (which makes sense). Except that action would take at least 0.5s. You press next, you wait, you see the display refresh with the next song's partial song name. Not the song I want, press next again. Very quickly, to skip 10 songs takes 10 seconds of effort. It was a painful device to use.
The iPod cam with a large screen and a click wheel. I could find songs on it. That was a revolution for me.
MP3 was the enabling technology (if you can't fit many songs on a small device, then this is moot).
> MP3 was the enabling technology (if you can't fit many songs on a small device, then this is moot).
As others have eluded to, MP3 only didn't seem to be enough. I remember passing on early mp3 players because they only had 32-64mb of storage, not even really enough to store a single album. Snatching up those tiny 1.8" hard drives right away and integrating them is probably as important as the UI improvements because it solved that problem.
If I remember my first mp3 player correctly, it had 16MB onboard + a 16MB smartmedia flash card (and uploading was via PIO parallel, and the software would occupy the whole system until finished), I needed to experiment with my comfort level between low bitrate and a worthwhile amount of songs. I must have ended up around 46-64kbps.
As soon as I had the funds I quickly moved onto a variety of CD/HDD based players, although I've only recently bought (and modded) an iPod - there's definitely reasons they were so popular. I can appreciate why they went to the common platform with the phone and were later phased out entirely, but as a task-dedicated non-smart device they would be last-man-standing.
The iPod cam with a large screen and a click wheel. I could find songs on it. That was a revolution for me.
MP3 was the enabling technology (if you can't fit many songs on a small device, then this is moot).