The sweet tune of an anniversary

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New Delhi, Oct 24: “Listening to music will never be the same again.” Scepticism met Apple CEO Steve Jobs when he launched iPod with those words back in October, 2001. But exactly five years and close to 68 million iPods later, Jobs appears to have had the last laugh, with the increasingly ubiquitous personal digital music player helping the once ailing computer maker dance all the way to the bank.

The popular cultural icon also spawned a whole new iPod generation. Its white earbuds have become so distinctive that they have made wearers the target of muggings around the world—police chiefs in the UK are blaming iPod’s popularity for a 5% rise in robberies.

As it celebrated its fifth birthday on Monday, iPod has been a story of shuffling commerce, culture and coolness. It was not the first digital music player and not even the first with a portable hard drive. But it has captured 80% marketshare, helping to script Apple’s dramatic turnaround.

Just a few days before the iPod was launched, Apple reported a dip of 22% in revenue, while profits had halved. Five years of dizzying growth have seen last quarter’s sales scale up to $1.6 billion, surpassing its revenue in 2001.

But Apple’s fortunes are only a part of the story. Coupled with iTunes music store, it made digital music on the go possible, rewriting the rules of the music distribution business. From Creative and Archos, which came before Apple and stored more music for less, to electronics majors like Sony and Samsung, competitors have come and gone but they were merely fighting for Apple’s leftovers.

The latest threat from Microsoft could be a different story. Its soon-to-be-launched Zune allows users to share songs between players.