Dieci anni di iPod

Il Guardian ha pubblicato un articolo in cui descrive la nascita, la vita e la probabile futura, non troppo remota, morte dell’iPod. Pensare che sono passati dieci anni, così tanti, da quando fu introdotto un po’ stupisce. Pensare che un gadget che ancora oggi sembra così nuovo appartenga oramai al passato, un po’ stupisce. Ma già adesso, negli Apple Store, lo spazio dedicato all’iPod è quello che riceve meno attenzioni dai visitatori, quello attorno al quale si radunano meno persone:

Across the cavernous chambers of the Grade II-listed building similar human-technology interactions are taking place. At other tables, as in any of Apple’s 300-plus stores worldwide, tourists check their emails and update their Facebook pages. Like everything else Apple does, its store layouts are ruthlessly designed. Pricey laptops and desktops by the door to lure you in, then iPads, then iPhones, then iPod Touches. The only table not occupied by a small cluster of people prodding, touching and fondling the technology is right at the back, in the store’s depths. It’s the table with the iPods on it.

Ma l’iPod è stato importantissimo: ha cambiato il modo in cui pensiamo alla tecnologia, il modo in cui consumiamo i media digitali, ha fatto sì che l’informatica entrasse nelle nostre vite e ha aperto la strada ad altri prodotti, come iPad e iPhone.

“It was the first cultural icon of the 21st century,” says Dr Michael Bull, a lecturer in media and film at the University Of Sussex, where his studies on the sociology around the MP3 player have earned him the sobriquet “Professor iPod”. “It was the first MP3 player that really worked. With the earlier ones you had to get down on your knees and pray to get a bit of music out of them. And it became symbolic of the way people like to move around in cities. It fitted the desire for a technological freedom, whereby you moved to your own soundscape. Roland Barthes argued that, in medieval society, cathedrals were the iconic form. Then by the 1950s it had become the car – the Citroën DS. I argue that 50 years later it was the iPod, this technology that let you fit your whole world in your pocket. It was representative of a key moment in the social world of the 21st century.”

Un articolo da leggere. E se poi continuate ad essere interessati, e la storia raccontata la volete conoscere più nei dettagli e con più aneddoti, “Il culto dell’iPod” di Leander Kaheney è un bel libro con cui approfondire.