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It’s been nine years since Apple Inc. started the mobile media revolution with the iPod and iTunes software. iTunes, specifically, has transformed the way that the world stores, organizes, downloads, and listens to music from their personal computers.
In the early days, iTunes was about as sturdy as a house of cards (it still ran on OS9). Today, this magical software offers users the ability to rent movies, watch TV shows, download any of 140,000+ applications for their iPhones, iPod Touches (or iPad), listen to the radio, download podcasts, and manage media collections of a virtually infinite size, all from a robust and intuitive user interface.
In 9 years, iTunes has gone from an incredibly simple design to one of increasing aesthetic complexity and appeal. Only Apple has the ability to make huge amounts of media look good in an application and create a unified, universal, and usable design. The evolution of the iTunes software marks the progress of application interface design, organization, content management, and media consumption in the modern world.
This post is a photographic collection of the evolution of the iTunes software from 2001 to 2010, version 1 to version 9.
iTunes 1
iTunes 1 allowed users to import, compress, and burn CD’s in order to manage and organize their entire music collection. iTunes 1 also came with the iTunes visualizer for…no real purpose, other than to look trippy.
iTunes 2
iTunes 2, released just 9 months after version 1, allowed iPod’s to be synced with an iTunes library. New features included a crossfader, equalizer, and better CD burning. Traction was beginning to pick up for iTunes, however, it was still a Mac-only application.
iTunes 3
iTunes 3 took progressive steps in the audi-playback area, adding sound check (to play all songs at the same volume) and smart playlists. iTunes 3 was the first version to require OS 10.1.4 or higher.
iTunes 4
iTunes 4 was a major upgrade to the application in the release of the iTunes Music Store. The music store allowed users to search and buy any song from an initial library of 200,000 songs for just 99 cents.
Six months later, in the same year, iTunes was announced for Windows.
iTunes 5
iTunes 5 improved the search function of the application. Parental controls, smart shuffle, and iPod Nano support are just a few of the improvements made in the new version.
The iTunes Music Store by now had over 2 million songs for purchase.
iTunes 6
iTunes 6 was released very quickly after version 5 with the addition of movies and TV shows for purchase in the iTunes Music Store. This obviously prompted users to question the use of the word “Music” in the name of the store. Support for Nike+ was added.
iTunes 7
iTunes 7 brought some major user interface changes, including coverflow and different visualization methods for viewing music collections. This of course, is the iTunes version that was updated to support the iPhone and iPod touch. By this point, over 3.5 million songs were on the iTunes store with over 1.5 billion sales, making iTunes the largest music store.
iTunes 8
iTunes 8 introduced the Genius Playlists feature which automatically suggests related songs to the one a user is listening to. HD TV shows also made an entrance in the iTunes store. iTunes 8 also introduced album visualization, which displays a users music and video library based on the album/box art.
iTunes now holds over 8.5 million songs, 30,000 TV episodes, and 2,500 films, 600 of which are in HD.
iTunes 9
iTunes 9 introduced such new features as iTunes LP, home sharing, genius mixes, and a redesigned iTunes store. Improved iTunes syncing also allows iPhone and iPod touch users to manage and organize their apps, right from iTunes.
The iTunes Store remains the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store with a catalog of over 11 million songs, over 50,000 TV episodes and over 7,500 films including over 2,000 in stunning high definition video.
What’s Next?
Apple has regularly pushed the innovative features of iTunes since 2001 all the way to 2010. From a very simple music storage application, to the worlds largest media store that connects with the iPhone and iPod lines of mobile devices, iTunes has, and will remain for the foreseeable future, the number one media library application for computer users.
What features would you like to see in iTunes 10? What has your experience been with iTunes thus far? Share your thoughts below in the comments!
Related posts:
- iTunes Widget – Tutorial
- Being A Starving Artist Sucks
- Design The iTunes Icon For The iPhone And iPod Touch
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8 Responses to The Evolution of iTunes – 2001 to 2010
Howard L
March 6th, 2010 at 1:57 am
Yes.
Why? Increased customer satisfaction.
Why not? It costs money.
Nell
March 6th, 2010 at 3:57 am
Proportion , balance , emphasis or a point of focus – to call attention to your subject , rhythm & unity .
tigerstripe66
March 19th, 2010 at 3:40 pm
I eat popcorn a lot but not microwave popcorn. The ingredient is called diacetyl. It's a fume that is found in the fumes from the artificial butter. In other words, the buttery smell is bad. Any popcorn produced by ConAgra foods doesn't contain it. I'm taking this seriously.
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March 20th, 2010 at 4:01 pm
Hi there, I'm french and glad to help !
Peut-on vraiment parler de " typique " quand il s'agit d'un pays en pleine globalisation, où les frontières deviennent de moins en moins distinctes avec la croissance de l'immigration et de la médiatisation de masse ?
Dans le monde d'aujourd'hui, c'est la diversité qui prévaut. La France ne possède pas exactement une culture que l'on pourrait qualifier d'homogène : la gastronomie, les coutumes et les traditions varient d'une région à l'autre. De plus au cours de la dernière décade, le flux d'immigration accru a enrichi la culture française et élargi ses horizons, ce qui l'a rendue plus hétéroclyte.
En dépassant les stéréotypes que l'on se fait généralement du " Française typique " ( enroulant sa moustache, portant bérêt et pull à rayures, quelques baguettes et une bouteille de bon vin sous la main, xénophobe ne supportant pas les étrangers qui ne savent pas parler le bon française ), on peut tenter de s'en faire une image plus réaliste.
Les Français, contrairement à ce qu'en dit la sagesse populaire, ne considèrent pas tous les étrangers avec mépris. D'après le mythe, ceux qui ne savent pas prononcer le français correctement se verront gratifier d'un regard condescendant, mais ce n'est tout simplement pas vrai. Bien qu'ils apprécient fortement que l'on fasse des efforts pour ne pas écorcher la langue, ils sont en général chaleureux et aident bien volontiers les touristes à s'orienter.
Les Français savent aussi rire de bon cœur et aiment passer leurs après-midi dans les terrasses de cafés qui leur sont typiques.
Il est extrêmement difficile de décrire la grande diversité de cette société en juste quelques mots. En ce qui concerne les caractéristiques qui décrivent l'état d'esprit de la population au mieux, il est opportun de mentionner le goût prononcé pour la bonne conversation, une légère obsession pour la gastronomie et la consommation massive de cette boisson qui ne peut manquer sur une table française : le vin.
Hope that helps !
Yoda J
March 23rd, 2010 at 11:08 am
check this out and work it out for yourself
VeL
March 24th, 2010 at 7:32 pm
Try Alt-Enter. This is used for switching windowed mode and full-screen mode.
Hope this helps
gordie63uno
May 21st, 2010 at 6:04 am
In most cases, a client should have a brief developed, but the problem today is that many clients believe that they know what they want and what they want is right and all they have to do is hire someone to execute it when in fact a designer does much more than that. I think that you will save your client time and money and (at the same time) display your professionalism by having a brief prepared in the event that your future clients do not.
If you have a local book store near you, you may want to look into "Creating the Perfect Design Brief: How to Manage Design for Strategic Advantage" by Peter L. Phillips, published in 2004 just in case you have any further questions.
Before any business goes down you should want to know the budget of your client (AVAILABLE BUDGET) and when they expect this project to be done (DEADLINE). With the deadline, the client should take into consideration the time spent on research and strategy, concept and design, production (printing and other forms of production) and delivery.
The rest of the brief should pretty much support the design you will be doing:
OBJECTIVES — what does the client want to achieve? Whether it be more business or something more up to date or asthetically pleasing, their expectations should be realistic.
TARGET MARKET — age, gender, geography, lifestyle of those the client wants to reach. Some clients may not know this while others may not think they know this.
I was doing a flyer once and the client asked me to include an image of a well groomed young male in a tux and a pretty lady in a dress. I ended up using an Asian couple, yet the client came back and said that the party was going to be populated with a majority of Blacks. This could have saved some embarrassment and time if this was mentioned earlier before the design went under way.
“THE MESSAGE” — this is one thing the client should be able to provide you with. What do they want to get across? Also what do they want used in the design and what are they providing you with: product shots, photographs, diagrams, text/wording?
CORPORATE PROFILE — so they could say that "We are a realty agency," but the client shouldn't assume that you know everything about them nor will you. It never hurts for them to provide a small summary of their business along with a brief history.
WHAT TO DO AND WHAT NOT TO DO — This part is most clients favorite since a lot of clients love to play the role of artist. It is best to get this understood in the beginning though. I have had a case where a project seemed to be going well. The lady didn't have much of a budget, but I thought that I would help her out. I constantly kept her up to date with the work I was doing and the project was progressing. All of a sudden, contact between us lessened. I sent her a follow-up e-mail and she suddenly started to say that she wanted to atake alter the project a bit and she now wasn't too pleased with some of the photos used and she wanted to do a photo shoot all over again when I was thinking the project was near completion.
Another thing that a lot of clients misunderstand is what design works and copyrite laws. If a client shows you something and says "We love this, but just want to erase X and replace it with Y and maybe do away with A and add some B instead," listen to them but at the same time offer your views and guide them from what they think might be good for them to something that is extremely better and will definitely give them their money's worth.
There are maybe many more things you can include, but you cannot go wrong with the basics that I touched on. Depending on the brief and the client, you may get more descriptive and helpful feedback from one person as opposed to another.
Your idea to design the brief is good. I will leave the decision up to you as to whether you would like to design the brief for Adobe Acrobat or Microsoft Word or some other file format in which the client can easily type in the information. For the less computer savvy and those with a printer though, they should also have the option to print the brief, fill it out and fax or scan it to you.
Good luck!
talktosky1012
May 21st, 2010 at 7:13 am
you can search some website which sell the korean game time card.