In September 2005, when Steve Jobs unveiled the new iPod video, along with millions of other iPod enthusiasts I vowed to lay my hands on one as soon as possible. Now I am admiring the sleek black model in my hand, yes my new iPod. Its awesome. Its even smaller than the palm of my hand, but can hold much more than my closed fist. I am now one of millions of music freaks enjoying listening to music on an iPod. How did this all happen. Read on
A complete gadget freak, I couldn't imagine myself without the new iPod. After debating in my mind the feasibility of going in for the new iPod vis-a-vis my meager PhD stipend, finally I decided to order the new iPod with a custom engraving and Apple informed me that my iPod would be shipped within two weeks. In a few days I got an email telling me my iPod has been shipped and I could track its status via FedEx. What a wonderful world it is. I click a mouse somewhere,bits fly through fiber optics, go to some unknown destination, money electronically changes hands and then atoms in useful arrangements are flown in airplanes and hand carried to my doorstep. This is sort of miraculous.
Then I wonder where my new iPod is. Can I expect it tomorrow, or will I have to wait for the next week? I am surprised to discover from FedEx that my new iPod is in a pick up station in Shanghai, China and just missed the pick up deadline. Well seems like I am going to have to wait for a while.
Two days later there is new tracking information from FedEx. My iPod is on the move, but now it is in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. I have to look this up to find where it is, and I discover it is marginally closer to Philadlephia than it was in Shanghai. I am resentful. What is my iPod doing in Uzbekistan?
A few days later my iPod reaches London. I know where this is, and I am encouraged. Still later I get good tidings that my iPod has reached Memphis,Tenn.-the center of FedEx's universe. In my mind I see the plane landing and unloading its contents and one of them being my iPod. It is practically home.
A complete gadget freak, I couldn't imagine myself without the new iPod. After debating in my mind the feasibility of going in for the new iPod vis-a-vis my meager PhD stipend, finally I decided to order the new iPod with a custom engraving and Apple informed me that my iPod would be shipped within two weeks. In a few days I got an email telling me my iPod has been shipped and I could track its status via FedEx. What a wonderful world it is. I click a mouse somewhere,bits fly through fiber optics, go to some unknown destination, money electronically changes hands and then atoms in useful arrangements are flown in airplanes and hand carried to my doorstep. This is sort of miraculous.
Then I wonder where my new iPod is. Can I expect it tomorrow, or will I have to wait for the next week? I am surprised to discover from FedEx that my new iPod is in a pick up station in Shanghai, China and just missed the pick up deadline. Well seems like I am going to have to wait for a while.
Two days later there is new tracking information from FedEx. My iPod is on the move, but now it is in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. I have to look this up to find where it is, and I discover it is marginally closer to Philadlephia than it was in Shanghai. I am resentful. What is my iPod doing in Uzbekistan?
A few days later my iPod reaches London. I know where this is, and I am encouraged. Still later I get good tidings that my iPod has reached Memphis,Tenn.-the center of FedEx's universe. In my mind I see the plane landing and unloading its contents and one of them being my iPod. It is practically home.
After two days of limbo, I am delighted to find that my iPod is in a truck 8 miles away. Within an hour my iPod is on my doorstep.
Now I am admiring my new iPod and realizing that in the new world economy the earth is truly flat. In Philadelphia I order an iPod from a California based company, but it is assembled in China. Some of the integrated circuits are probably fabricated there, too,while other chips might have come form Japan, Korea or Taiwan. A lot of design must have been done in California by brilliant American, European and South Asian engineers.
But where did the ideas come from which made this machine possible? Just consider some of the brilliant and complex concepts that are embedded in this little box. It can play music, screen videos, display pictures, organize contacts and calendars and store tons of gigabytes of data. It must have been made possible by the millions of lines of code, computer-aided design tools for the integrated circuits, and by sheer brilliance of some technically advanced minds from all over the world.
This iPod epitomizes the world of technology today-designed by brilliant minds, ordered electronically, assembled with worldwide parts, delivered via a sophisticated logistics system and replete with ingenious ideas. Yet in a world of commodity products, this brilliance is largely unappreciated. And if this iPod dies on me one day, I'll stop appreciating it too.
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