To be able to proclaim that an entertainment product is a major breakthrough within weeks after the biggest tragedy of America it is bold marketing, but Steve Jobs was not doing this for the first time. An example of it is the official launch of the Macintosh computer, aired only once, during the Super Bowl in 1984 (Levy, 2006). Even though it was aired only once the people are still talking about it. .
Mackay's work "Theorising the IT/Society relationship " (1995) explains the influence of different factors in the development of technology. Studying this work we can see that the iPod qualifies for the social shaping when a big company influence the development of technology and we have here the example of movies where the iPod was a character it self, movies like: The Italian Job, Agent Cody Banks, First Daughter, Legally Blonde. Levy (2006). Other examples are the president George W. Bush or the Pope. .
As well the iPod is in the social construction of the technology where we, the buyers, are influencing the development of society deciding what is it that stays on the market and what disappears. This is a very important factor to understand probably the disappearance of the other MP3 players. (Mackay, 1995).
Jonathan Ive, the designer of majority of the revolutionary Apple products, said in an interview that his goal was to create something simple to use and attractive at look at.[www.telegraph.co.uk, 19/11/2005] Before the iPod, the digital music players did not excel on design or technology. The iPod was both. Kahney (cited in Raven, ed. by Wittkower, p. 25) said, "Digital music players were either big and clunky or small and useless. " Technically, the iPod should be seen as a minimalist blobjet (a design with no sharp edges and with smooth curves) and once with the launch of the iPod the moment of the blobjet has passed. .
Even though it seems nearly impossible the iPod's development is explained also by the theory of ˜symptomatic technology'.
