This level of negativity is typical for HN. Look at what happened when dhouston announced Dropbox- the second comment was about how any Linux user can trivially replace it for themselves:
A comment from the iPod thread: "AAPL is going down fast! - Mmmm. APPL is already down $1.00... Looks like the markets aren't looking too favorably on Apple's new forays into the digital device market." [1]
Today on Yahoo Finance: 'Tesla Falls After Announcement - Tesla Motors (TSLA) fell nearly 2% and remained in the lower parts of a six-month-old consolidation. Late Wednesday, Tesla said all of its new vehicles will be equipped with hardware that enables fully autonomous driving "at a safety level substantially greater than that of a human driver." [2]
Now go look at Theranos, and what the defenders were saying here.
Or the hundreds of other bad ideas that were criticized and failed because they were bad ideas. Picking a few big successes doesn't make an argument. Because, I agree, there are naysayers for everything. I'm glad; keeps people honest.
This is one of my favorite nuggets of internet history–also excellent because the thread ID (500) makes it easy to find since it'll redirect from: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/500.
That is GOLD! My favorite comment is this, which is so wrong it almost sounds sarcastic:
"I still can't believe this! All this hype for something so ridiculous! Who cares about an MP3 player? I want something new! I want them to think differently!
Why oh why would they do this?! It's so wrong! It's so stupid!"
For balance, here are other comments from the first two pages of that thread:
"Come on everyone, y'all are saying it sucks before you have even held it in your hand. I mean 5GB in a little tiny thing like that, it's amazing. I don't see anyone else making something like that. Do you?"
"No matter what Apple does there are always people who are NEVER happy. Give it a rest. It's a great idea and the first of many."
"The truth is that is really is revolutionary. 5 gigs? Where do you see 5 gigs in an Mp3 player?"
"This is not like any other MP3 player on the market, imagine being able to store several days worth of music at once! The iPod will be great for travelers, students, heck anyone who is really into music"
"This thing's too cool. It makes my Rio 500 (recently upgraded to hold 128 MB of songs) look pathetic. It's beautiful. It looks too easy to use. It has all sorts of cool features that I will never live without again. This is a home run, and y'all who keep complaining its not a $200 Newton device, buy a Visor. They can play MP3s, by the way, but they're still stuck in the 21st century compared to the iPod."
"THIS THING IS AMAZING!!!
It's not jus ANOTHER mp3 player. It's a BREAKTROUGH mp3 player!"
"with all the hype surrounding it, the iPod still came out looking quite good."
"I think it looks like a great toy. The price is steep for 5 GB, but everything else about it is great."
"iPod is a great idea. It has huge capacity for MP3s (5GB is much more than any other similarly sized mp3 toy), syncs with iTunes, and a nicely sized backlit LCD screen with good battery life (10hours). Recharges by FireWIre is also a neat thing."
In all fairness, the initial iPods were nothing to write home about and, as I recall, iTunes didn't even run on anything except Macs--then a rather niche hardware platform. Of course, iPods improved relative to the competition but it was really the iTunes store and Apple's ability to fundamentally change how music was sold that really had the impact.
This sounds like the perspective of someone who didn't actually use early iPods and definitely didn't use Sony Discmans and Walkmans and other predecessors.
Because folks who actually used all that stuff know that the iPod was a quantum leap, even in its first few generations. 5GB of storage, MUCH better battery life than any competing device of any kind, and FireWire 400 felt fast enough back then that it was like actually being on fire.
Indeed. I had a walkman in the 80's. I still remember not being able to walk too quickly with my discman.
As soon as the ipod came out, I bought one for my girlfriend as a birthday present. She has never used any other system for listening to or acquiring music since. It obviously switched to the smart-phone, but still...
The first iPod provided unprecedented amounts of storage in a form factor that actually fit in your pocket. They accomplished this by buying out the world's initial supply of tiny hard drives for over a year and change. This kept would-be competitors at bay, making every other 5GB MP3 player look like a giant brick by comparison.
Most of the people who were shitting on the iPod never held one in their hands.
This level of negativity is typical for HN. Look at what happened when dhouston announced Dropbox- the second comment was about how any Linux user can trivially replace it for themselves:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863