How Tony Fadell made the iPod, convinced Steve Jobs to put it on Windows

I was at the starting point of first 18 gens of iPod that shipped (& a few generations that didn’t ship). Was a team effort, but mainly technology driven since we could only deliver what we could push the tech to do.

You are defined by what you do & also by what you don’t do. https://t.co/P3u11ZcmLm

— Tony Fadell (@tfadell) October 6, 2019

The real reason why iPod & iPhone were successful was based on the market timing & the complete ground up design (HW+SW) That said, I pushed to ship the 1st iPod in <10 months. Long timelines are the death of daring projects inside (struggling) companies.
We even surprised SJ! https://t.co/lnMHYG5BBh

— Tony Fadell (@tfadell) October 6, 2019

Not at all… we did they best we could with what was available at the time. I bet the whole product & business on a processor from a tiny unknown startup who had failed once to deliver. Most big companies would NEVER do such a risky thing. https://t.co/3eGhayv5w0

— Tony Fadell (@tfadell) October 6, 2019

Exactly - Design + HW + SW + App (then later + Content)

But even more importantly - continually introducing new products at lower price points while adding new features at the high end. That was the way iPod locked up the market with consumers. https://t.co/CC4X3klEcf

— Tony Fadell (@tfadell) October 6, 2019

I remember the day when Steve called me to the Board Room to personally sign a $4B purchase order for Samsung Flash for the Nano. “Are you sure we are ordering the right stuff? It’s going to work, right?” It was the biggest single order Apple had ever placed at the time. https://t.co/O21WJh6V42

— Tony Fadell (@tfadell) October 6, 2019

Many sleepless nights worrying about Sony. It was one of my biggest questions I asked Steve during the first pitch “Sony owns every audio market category.…”

MSFT - no worries - they weren’t a SW+HW innovator like they are today. I would worry about them now however. https://t.co/XuDG9hfoX5

— Tony Fadell (@tfadell) October 6, 2019

Sony Corp was too concerned about the declining CD music sales in the Sony Music Entertainment business. They didn’t want to appear to embrace MP3s - since that implied the music was stolen. Corporate politics. Reminds me of Kodak who invented the digital camera… https://t.co/OfEnwyWxtd

— Tony Fadell (@tfadell) October 6, 2019

Exactly - over many many objections that Steve had. Also we added USB2.0 specifically much to the chagrin of FireWire lovers…

Oh the memories of those fundamental (and possibly religious/dogmatic) changes that are so critical to the next phase of the business… https://t.co/5Rw3GlIUKh

— Tony Fadell (@tfadell) October 6, 2019

Luckily our good friend @waltmossberg helped us (or should I say “convinced the non-believer, Steve”) make the (highly religious) decision ship the iPod for PC! https://t.co/cHYjLoLuoQ

— Tony Fadell (@tfadell) October 6, 2019

Don’t hide the fears from the team, talk about them, embrace them.

When you know your demons, you can rise to the challenge of defeating them.

But you can never forget them (or new ones that arise) when, hopefully, success comes. Otherwise it’s the beginning of the end. https://t.co/s1RTjL7xzO

— Tony Fadell (@tfadell) October 6, 2019