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iPod Sex Appeal

Everyday, I take the TTC to work. It’s roughly a 20 minute ride by subway, followed by a good 10 minute walk from the station to the front door of the building I work in.

During my 30 minute journey, I am accompanied by my iPod. This trusty piece of hardware is often loaded down with the latest music and podcasts which I listen to during my trek to my daily 9-5. It’s funny, now that I think about it, my iPod goes everywhere I go. To the store for milk, the local coffee shop, or if I feel like going for a drive. I’m always tuned in and turned on (not in that kind of way).

I guess you could say that I love my iPod. It’s somewhat thick, feels solid, and has a big, bright screen, and it’s white. My iPod is, if I don’t mind saying, quite sexy. It’s reliable, has never crashed on me, and plays one MP3 after another, and never insults my somewhat strange taste in music (then again, the conversation on the subway is probably drowning out my sidekick’s quiet snickers). What can I say? I enjoy the Forrest Gump soundtrack.

Have you ever noticed just how many people drive the same car as you? Even though we are all sometimes disconnected as we move through the world, and fail to see the big things, we always see the small things. Since I’ve started using my iPod on a daily basis basis, I’ve started to notice just how many people are plugged in and listening.

The average subway car fits approximately 50-60 average-sized people comfortably (add 20 more to that tally if you want to include standing room). Of those 70-80 people, a relatively large percentage of those people have a portable MP3 player. The percentage of those people with an iPod is high; I’d take a wild guess and say 70% of them have an iPod.

Over the past week, I’ve counted at least 5 or 6 fellow commuters have an iPod. When you think about it, that’s quite impressive. 5 people out of 50 equals 10%. Multiply that number (commuters using an iPod) by the number of cars (6 per train, I believe) and that’s 30 iPod users.

This begs the question; why does the iPod have so much sex appeal? Why do we love that clickwheel so much? What is it about that little screen that has us so fixated?

My daily 9-5 finds me glued to my monitor, writing XHTML and CSS for a medium sized creative agency in Toronto. I take Photoshop designs and convert them into nice, clean code that works across all platforms. Because of this, I spend alot of time looking at user interfaces. That could very well be the answer to my questions above.

The interface on that small-ish sized screen is quite possibly the reason why we love the iPod so much. It tells us EVERYTHING we want to know about our music; namely, the name of track, the artist, the album it originates from, and the album cover art. It’s simple, easy to read, and the way the elements are laid out makes it visually appealing. Quite simply, as one of my friends told me, “it’s intuitive”.

Isn’t that what we are all after? Something easy to figure out? I hate trying to figure electronics. It makes me crazy. If they are meant to be for consumers, then they should be easy enough for both me or my 82 year old grandmother to figure out. Sadly, we all know this is not the case sometimes.

I have long wanted to conduct a study about iPod users, and why they like their iPods. In the coming days and weeks, I will be putting together a short little survey to find out why the iPod is such a beloved device. Stay tuned!

Posted By: Justin Kozuch
Posted On: January 16th, 2007
Posted In: Ruminations
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