Tony Fadell, often called the “Father of the iPod” was the co-creator of the transformational music device which recreated the face of the music industry. His journey to the pinnacle of success wasn’t easy and he has reportedly said that he had a decade of failures in the technology industry.
Fadell worked for tech giants including Philips, Sony, Toshiba before starting his own company ‘Fuse’.One of the products he wanted to create was a small hard disk -based music player and an online-store-for-music. But he failed to find enough funding for it, and had approached 80+ companies.
Mp3’s had been around for a while, and what Fadell wanted to create was a smaller, sleeker version which would focus on content delivery of music. He wanted the music lovers to be able to fill their device with songs easily. He had approached Real Networks with the idea similar to that of the iPod in the fall of 2000.
But Real Networks, which was a major player in the software and streaming industry had turned the idea down citing that the product would not have enough market share or demand. This is labelled as one of the biggest missed opportunities for the tech industry players.
In 2001, what started with Fadell working for Apple as a contractor, he eventually continued till 2008. His idea for a small hard disk-based music player and an online-store-for-music had caught Steve Job’s attention. And he developed the idea further and was ultimately hired by Apple to oversee the iPod project.
And the rest is history, Apple now controls almost 80% of the digital market, and the content delivery system is what is known to us as iTunes now. Steve Jobs helped Fadell in creating his vision and the iPod became a game changer for Apple and has contributed massively to its growth.
Image credits: the Kongblog
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