April 21, 2001. I bought my first portable MP3 player, a Creative Labs Nomad Jukebox. It was only slightly more bulky than a typical portable CD player, and had 6GB of storage space. The total cost including tax worked out to $93.86/GB.
6GB seemed like a lot of space, but as I ripped my music library to my computer over the next while I found I had close to 18GB of music. So, I took my library of 192kbps MP3s and had them batch re-compressed to 64kpbs WMA files. Cutting it down to ⅓ the size let it fit my Jukebox just perfectly. But let me tell you, even with Windows Media Audio files having better quality than MP3 at low bit rates, I could still clearly notice the difference in audio quality but I just lived with it. Until...
September 9, 2003. I bit the bullet and bought my second Apple product, the first being a used Apple IIgs computer I bought off someone a whole decade prior (and it still sits in my closet. It's a piece of history, now)—a 30GB 3rd-generation iPod. That would give me plenty of space to use my original higher-quality MP3s, plus I had heard many good things about iPods. And this was way back before they became insanely popular. In fact, it was almost a year before there even was such a thing as iTunes for Windows. Back then you needed to use third-party software to get anything on to the iPod.
I knew from what I had read about it that it was small, but my mind was blown when I opened the box and it really clicked. This thing was only slightly larger than a typical deck of cards. Considerably smaller than that now huge Jukebox, yet had five times the storage space. But it was expensive—close to $800. Plus, the only expense wasn't just the iPod itself, but I also had to buy a card to add a Firewire port to my PC just to use it. Despite the cost, I thought it was worth every penny, though. Total cost including both the iPod and Firewire card—$30.15/GB.
December 4, 2005. Just over two years later my music library had grown further, and while the 30GB iPod still was able to easily hold all my music and probably could have done so for another year or two, I was itching for the recently released 5th-generation iPod. It could hold 60GB of data, had a color screen, could show photos, and could also play videos, too. A little later Apple even added the ability for a few select third parties to make games for it, of which I bought a handful. Total cost—$9.50/GB.
May 28, 2012. It took six and a half years, but I finally managed to almost fill my now ancient 60GB iPod. There was only enough space left for maybe a dozen albums, at most. Plus, I was interested in using the feature of iTunes Match subscriptions where people could re-download their music at a higher bit rate. That definitely would have pushed me over the 60GB limit. Plus, the screen wasn't doing so hot. A significant number of pixels weren't working correctly anymore. it worked well enough for selecting music, but it definitely wouldn't be good for playing videos or games. Not that I ever played videos or games on it anymore, with me also owning both an iPhone and iPad...
There also had been rumours for the past couple years that this class of iPod, since rebranded the iPod Classic, would be dropped from the lineup. In fact, I recall watching an Apple Keynote last fall where they even went so far as to specifically list the Shuffle, Nano and Touch as being “the iPod lineup” with not so much as an acknowledgement that the Classic still existed. And the Classic line has not received a single update since September 2009, when it got bumped to 160GB. So between the almost completely full iPod and the fear that if I waited until it was completely full the Classic might no longer be available, I took the plunge and finally upgraded. Total cost for this one—a measly $1.75/GB.
So what next? It's quite possible that by the time I've filled the space on this one, if ever, the current iPod Touches and iPhones will be “ancient technology” and we'll be on to the next big thing. We're already seeing the start of it, with streaming audio growing in popularity and services like iCloud/iTunes Match where you could have a device with very little storage and it'll just download whatever you want to hear it when you want to hear it. There's still something to be said for having all your music library in one place though. Someone who's traveling might not always be in a place where they can access their music, whether through a Wifi hotspot or a cellular data connection. Just ask anyone driving through the mountains about their long stretches with no service. I'm sure that's the only reason Apple still hasn't officially killed off the iPod Classic. Perhaps they'll still continue to sell it for years to come, although I find it doubtful that it'll receive any further storage increases. Most likely, as soon as the price of flash storage has dropped to the point where it's feasible for Apple to sell a 128GB or greater iPod Touch, the Classic will be gone forever.
But considering how long it took for my music library to grow 30GB, I think this new 160GB iPod will probably die before I come close to filling it. Especially when you consider that for several years I had an eMusic subscription and as such was getting loads of new music every month, but now I don't have that so my music purchasing has significantly slowed. I don't think I'll need to think about what'll be replacing this iPod for quite some time, if I treat it well and don't accidentally break it.
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