Apple captures modern pysche with iPod shuffle slogan
updated 02:20 pm EST, Sun January 16, 2005
iPod shuffle slogan
Apple's "Life is Random" slogan, used by Steve Jobs at last week's Macworld Expo keynote, may be a for its iPod shuffle, but it also affirms the growing sense of information overload, according to John Schwartz of The New York Times. "But clever Apple knows that most users will simply want the gadget to grab songs out of the main computer's library and then play them in an order of its choosing. Random. Like life....Apple, with the attitude of an artist and the eye of an anthropologist, has asked: How do we listen to music? What do we want from it? A response from the company, and its millions of customers, is that music is a kind of ambient grace, which blocks out the cellphone jabber on the train, the honking horn on the walk to the grocery store. And the result is that little white earbuds have become ubiquitous around the country." [free registration required]
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jun 2004
Nonsense!
Apple didn't capture anything. They came up with a catchy slogan and concept that completely glosses over this product's shortcomings - no LED/LCD screen. People already use the random play on their larger iPods.
The shuffling of songs onto the iShuffle is really a software thing that could (or should) be used as a play list with any iPod for folks who want that random thing. Using it as a selling point for an under-featured product is rather pathetic.
The iShuffle is remarkable in its affordability - no mistake. But without a readout - 1gig is too much random info.