Every wonder how the iPod became to be as popular as it is? Wired has an excellent article explaining how the iPod was created, and the problems involved with getting it out the door. For you iPod fans it"s definitely worth checking out.
Ben Knauss is a former senior manager at PortalPlayer, the company Apple Computer approached to help develop an MP3 player that would eventually become the wildly popular iPod. Knauss shared his firsthand knowledge of the device"s development, the glitches that almost killed it, and the extraordinary steps Apple took to keep the iPod a secret. Knauss, who acted as the primary liaison between Apple and PortalPlayer, quit the company in 2001. According to Knauss, the iPod originated with a business idea dreamed up by Tony Fadell, an independent contractor and hardware expert who"d helped develop handheld devices at General Magic and Philips.
"Tony"s idea was to take an MP3 player, build a Napster music sale service to complement it, and build a company around it," Knauss said. "Tony had the business idea." Knauss said Fadell left Philips and set himself up as an independent contractor to shop the idea around. Knauss said Fadell approached several companies and was turned away by all of them, except for Apple. Apple hired Fadell in early 2001 and assigned him a team of about 30 people -- "a typical industrial design team," Knauss said, including designers, programmers and hardware engineers. He"s currently the senior director of iPod & Special Projects Group at Apple.