At the Apple Store Size DOES Matter

When the new ipod shuffle hit stores, though I was intrigued by the new "talk feature" of the ipod, what I found most interesting was apple's approach to advertising its new product. On the front page of apple.com an advertisement entitled, "small talk," boasts that the "iPod shuffle is jaw-droppingly small... half the size of the previous generation." When clicking on the tutorial video, a young woman goes on an on about the new shuffle being "the world’s smallest music player…even smaller than a double a battery" before finally going on to the new functions of the ipod.

When I clicked off the ad, I had a good laugh, pondering what it was about smaller physical mediums for technology that are so appealing to the consumer? Though I was genuinely impressed by the sheer feat of cramming 4GB of memory into such an incredibly small object, I couldn’t see much practical use to having that small of a machine. For one, I can't imagine trying to relocate the new shuffle if, God forbid, I misplaced the object not much larger than a paper clip. Also, an ipod that small would certainly be much more breakable than ipods in the past. As I thought about all of the disadvantages of the new ipod, I was beginning to feel like an elerly person complaining about the impracticality of new technology, everything about it being too small, whether that be the buttons, screen, etc.

Finally, I asked myself the question that often comes up when considering new technology. At what point are the creators of the product going to stop? Will apple continue to make ipods until they are no longer visible to the naked eye? At this rate, I don't see why not.