Core77

Visual history of the iPod

By Niti Bhan - September 8, 2007

in Design Business

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The Wall Street Journal has finally been excited enough by the effect of the iPod and its variations on Apple's share price to create this chart showing when each model was launched and the relevant share price. After a slow start as the first iPod and then the iTunes store was launched and then grew in popularity, you can see the upward trend occur after each subsequent innovation until the current stock price is almost 7 times what it was 6 years ago. The clarity of their cohesive design language and its evolution over time is also instantly appreciated at a glance. If ever business needed confirmation that design can have a significant effect on your ROI, then this piece of infoporn is it. Imagine if the iPod had been killed in the first quarter or two for not showing results!

via The Big Picture

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tebogo Mokobo

17 years ago

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cool
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Rian

17 years ago

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At first glance I'd love to agree right off the bat, because I am a strong believer in the ROI of good design. However, the researcher in me has to take a step back and ask if we can really say this based off this one chart. As every researcher will tell you, correlation does not imply causality. Just because 2 things happen at the same time, it does not mean that one event causes the other.

Forgive me for stating the obvious, but there are hundreds of factors that influence the stock price, and we simply can't prove causality just by looking at this graph. For example, how do we use design to explain the sudden drop in stock price between the iPod video launch and the redesign iPod shuffle launch?

Having said that, I do think that this poses an interesting question about what effect good user experience has on business metrics and revenue. I guess if we can find a way to prove that beyond the shadow of a doubt, we won't have to spend half our time convincing people that good user experience is important...

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