Before 2001, the word iPod meant nothing. Today, it's almost impossible to imagine a world where Apple's ubiquitous players didn't exist. We can thank iPod for making the hard-drive based digital audio player viable. More importantly, it is responsible for moving the digital audio player (DAP) out of the realm of the tech-savvy and into the mainstream.

In my last column, I mentioned that the hard-drive based DAPs are the most significant. While the smaller flash based players have their niche, it's the hard-drive based players that are progressing portable media technology. Without iPod and its competitors, there wouldn't be a discernible market for portable media. Today, you can buy portable media players that allow you to carry digital video in your pocket, and the technology is only going to get more advanced over the next few years.

Looking back to the release of the first iPod in 2001, who could've imagined the extent to which it would invade popular culture? Whenever we see those white earbuds on TV or film we know exactly what we're looking at: an iPod. It is indeed astounding to consider the power of Apple's hype machine.

Hype wasn't the only driving force of iPod though. The first iPod was attractive and easy to use, and subsequent generations have only furthered these qualities. With their clean design and simple user interface, Apple effectively made a high-tech consumer device that was not threatening to the average user.

This, I believe, has been the key to iPod's success. Hype is simply the extra ingredient that has allowed iPod to grow in popularity even after similar, yet significantly less expensive players, entered the market. The Apple PR machine was obviously incredibly effective in the early iPod years. Apple was, and still is, able to sell the device at a considerable premium over many of its competitors. Today, the company merely has to announce a new version of iPod to get the public salivating.

While I may sound like some sort of Apple fanboy at this point, I'm actually anything but. Given the enormous role iPod has had in the DAP movement, it's simply necessary to talk about it to this degree. Not only has iPod established the hard-drive based DAP in the marketplace, it has also brought microdrive-based players into the spotlight in 2004 with the iPod Mini. As I mentioned in the last column, microdrives are tiny hard-drives the size of compact flash memory cards (the cards we currently find in digital cameras). Just like the original iPod, iPod Mini was not the first microdrive player on the market, but it was the first to become wildly popular.

The success of iPod Mini is somewhat counterintuitive, especially considering that the 4GB player cost $250 upon release-a mere $50 cheaper than the 20GB iPod at the time. While it is slightly smaller, this is really the only advantage to this player, which costs almost as much as its big brother. After the release of iPod Mini, competitors quickly released comparable microdrive players, and Apple proved again that people would buy a wholly novel device.

In this case, Apple proved that a small capacity DAP (which costs about the same as a larger capacity DAP) can be successful. Today, these microdrive players are a hot item; it seems like all DAP manufacturers are placing their bets on them instead of the larger capacity players. We can, once again, thank Apple for proving the feasibility of a completely new consumer device, even if its success seems completely illogical.

I would like to conclude this series of columns on DAPs at some point, but for the next issue I want to focus on something different: a sexy new portable device some call the Sony Playstation Portable or PSP. I'll compare it to Nintendo's DS, their new portable gaming system.