lucis

Amazing analogy over at Penny Arcade…

The iPod is the modern-day equivalent of the Samurai sword.

It is a bit emasculating to admit this, but portable electronics have replaced sidearms in our culture. I draw upon the Japanese katana for my analogy for several reasons. First, the katana was much more than a mere weapon or cutting tool. It was a portable symbol of status, power, and class. The warrior class, the Samurai, were actually quite numerous. At their height they were nearly 10% of the population of Japan. Before 1876, wearing the katana conveyed to the casual observer that the wearer of the long and short swords possessed a rank and status of an elite group.

The simple fact that people are willing to pay hundreds of dollars more for an iPod, when equal technology is available in a less impressive-looking package, points directly to this analogy. People will pay more for a status symbol, and in doing so, they have made the iPod one of the most important cultural icons today.

The iPod is indeed beautiful, artfully designed, and really still is quite impressive technologically speaking. One of the most intriguing things to me remains that even though the headphones that come with it are of famously poor quality, people seem to hang onto them, since they seem to say, �I am a charter member of the iPod fraternity!�

- Penny Arcade

I would completely agree with the earphones part. I can tell another iPod user from a mile simply by the distinctive white earphones! And though I’ve never liked stock earphones with portable electronics (thanks my obsession for portable MP3 players, I’ve seen quite a few), I continue to use the iPod’s rather crappy earphones!

But I strongly believe that it is not only about pride and having a status symbol. A very big reason for the iPod’s success is that it is very attractive and has great looks and design. The touch wheel, the glowing buttons, the backlit screen - use it once, and you’ll want one for yourself. It is a a fact that Attractive things work better.

Wash and polish your car: doesn’t it drive better?

For a long, long time computers have been badly designed. Not just software (we all know how awful user interface on most software is), but even the beige colored boxes. Lian Li, for example makes awfully expensive ($150+) but really amazing computer cases. With a slide out motherboard tray, removable front panel and power supply tray, these attractive cases really work much better than ordinary $20 ones. And then there is this whole range of great looking products from Apple. It is no surprise that they also have the best Operating System and applications for the desktop. Things like this certainly add to the overall experience when one works on them. Most of us spend a majority of our day on our computers (why else would anyone be reading this) - and this is all the more reason to use hardware and software that one enjoys working on!

Edit: Found this article that talks about the packaging of the Powerbook and the iPod, and the difference such small things make to the complete ownership experience. Lots of thought is put into seemingly unimportant things - but they have a huge impact on the user. Isnt this true for all forms of art?