Whipsaw

Fast Talk: Apple in Their Eyes

By: Jennifer Vilaga

Go the Distance With the Details

Digital-audio players weren’t exactly virgin territory when Apple entered the fray in 2001. But the iPod — with its sublime design, intuitive usability, and unparalleled cool quotient — set a new standard by which all other MP3 players would be judged. Four rivals talk about designing their answer to an icon.

If there’s anything anyone in this field is chasing, it’s Apple’s quality and simplicity. Pick up an iPod, and you get it, you feel it, you sense it. When it first came out in 2001, the iPod had a pretty serious impact on Rio Audio. Rio came to us and basically said, “We need serious help. Our market position has slipped, and we may even go bankrupt.” We helped them beat Apple to market by a year on a mini hard-drive player.

We were working on its successor, the Carbon, when Apple shot back with the iPod mini. Suddenly, the philosophical underpinning became, How could Rio possibly compete with this powerhouse? We decided that we had to be radically different from Apple. Where Apple was the ivory tower, we were going to be the dark rebel. Where Apple was geometric, we were going to be smooth and curvy. Apple was so enamored with absolute pure, minimalist design that some designers may argue that ergonomics were compromised. We also saw an opportunity to beat Apple in materials and battery life.
Some companies have reacted to the iPod by loading up with features, but that can backfire. It’s control and discipline in the details that conveys Rio’s commitment to quality in the design. We went to Asia and worked closely with the contract manufacturers, holding them accountable to the standards we set. It cost an extra 25%, but we could design out mistakes this way. That’s crucial since Rio doesn’t advertise. The Carbon had to be its own salesman.

Dan Harden, 45, started his own firm after 10 years at frog design. The Carbon is the second-best-selling midsized player, behind only the iPod mini.