The designer iPod cases on the main page are just the beginning of the many ways in which third parties have began to cash in on the success of the iPod by offering ways to individualize a standard unit and tailoring it to the particular tastes of its user. The original means of iPod individualization was through Apple, which offered two lines of text laser engraved on the mirrored panel when you bought your iPod at the online Apple store.

Later forms of iPod customization officially endorsed by the manufacturer happened when Apple agreed to let Hewlitt-Packard manufacture its own iPods for PC users, which included templates for creating custom adhesive skins that could be printed and stuck over the stock white face of the iPod. Also, the iPod mini was released in an array of colors, allowing shoppers to differentiate their devices out of the box.

However, the market for iPod customization doesn't stop with options offered by Apple: companies such as DLO, Agent 18, and Incase specialize in creating iPod coverings in a variety of colors, patterns, and materials while as I've already shown, traditional fashion lines have included iPod friendly products into their existing catalogs.

The iPod Economy

In James Doran's article for The Australian, he highlights a just few of the companies who have focused their creating peripheral equipment for use with and in the style of the iPod. One of the archetypical tales of how the iPod has affected others in the electronics industry is that of Altec Lansing, whose InMotion speakers were designed specifically for the iPod. Company senior vice-president Bob Garthwaite says, "The powered speakers division was a very small part of our business last year (2003). By the end of next year (2004) we fully expect it to account for about 50 percent of our sales."

Similarly, companies are making peripherals that enhance certain aspects of the iPod, but cost as much or more than the iPod itself. For example, Shure's upgrade to the standard white earbud headphones feature noise-canceling technology and sleeves to give users the best possible fit. The rub is that they cost the same as a 20GB iPod at $299. As Andrew Zipern says in his New York Times piece on the earphones, "You could buy yourself a bunch of concert tickets for that kind of money, but then you wouldn't have the coolest iPod on the subway."

This satellite economy that has developed around the iPod reminds Bob Crandall, an economist for a Washington think-tank, of the companies that sprang up around the introduction of the Ford Model T in 1903. However, unlike Ford which needed the third parties to supply the many parts of the automobile, the iPod economy is purely supplemental to Apple's original product.

Ubiquitous Integration

Furthermore, instead of simply adding products for the iPod, some companies are finding ways to bring the iPod in to their products, especially in the auto industry. Most notably is BMW's addition of iPod controls to the steering wheel of some of its car models, with a cradle for the iPod in the glove compartment that literally makes the iPod part of the car. A Volkswagen ad campaign also promoted integrating the iPod into its New Beetle, featuring and emphasizing the unique design of both products.

Tim Mattran