Steve Jobs Biography: About Those Ubiquitous iPod Ads - MacRumorsOpen MenuShow RoundupsShow Forums menuVisit ForumsOpen Sidebar
Skip to Content

Steve Jobs Biography: About Those Ubiquitous iPod Ads

by

015226 ad
One noticeable aspect of Apple's iPod advertising were the sheer number of iPod ads on television and in billboards. At the time, it seemed as if Apple was just being particularly aggressive with their adverting, but Steve Jobs' Biography revealed that those ubiquitous iPod ads were actually being subsidized by the Mac.

"I had this crazy idea that we could sell just as many Macs by advertising the iPod. In addition, the iPod would position Apple as evoking innovation and youth. So I moved $75 million of advertising money to the iPod, even though the category didn't justify one hundreth of that. That meant that we completely dominated the market for music players. We outspent everybody by a factor of about a hundred."

So, the so-called iPod "halo" effect resulting in more Mac sales was something that Jobs relied upon. In fact, it allowed them to outspend all their competitors for a large factor which further cemented the iPod's lead in the MP3 market.

Top Rated Comments

188 months ago
Well it worked. As an example, I bought a MacBook based solely on my use of the iPhone.
Score: 22 Votes (Like | Disagree)
188 months ago
Jobs was a genius in marketing.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Ivan P Avatar
188 months ago
Any day now I'm expecting Mac Rumors to just post the entire biography online.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
188 months ago
Then again, if you kept reading, Jobs was completely against at releasing iTunes for Windows even though it meant huge music revenues. Fortunately he did what he thought at the time was wrong due to strong pressure from his vice presidents.
And if I remember correctly PC world voted iTunes as the best PC application for the year of its release!
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
188 months ago
Well it worked. As an example, I bought a MacBook based solely on my use of the iPhone.
Completely agree I went from 'testing' an iPhone 3GS to now having a household of 2x 3GS, iPhone 4, iMac, apple TV and airport throughout the house. Just waiting for the HP laptop to die so the missus will let me buy an iPad :)
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
188 months ago
Then again, if you kept reading, Jobs was completely against at releasing iTunes for Windows even though it meant huge music revenues. Fortunately he did what he thought at the time was wrong due to strong pressure from his vice presidents.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

imac video apple feature

Apple Released Yet Another New Product Today

Friday March 20, 2026 2:39 pm PDT by
Apple has unveiled a whopping nine new products so far this March, including an iPhone 17e, iPad Air models with the M4 chip, MacBook Air models with the M5 chip, MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, the all-new MacBook Neo, an updated Studio Display, a higher-end Studio Display XDR, AirPods Max 2, and now the Nike Powerbeats Pro 2. iPhone 17e features the same overall design as...
ios 26 4 pastel

iOS 26.4: Top 10 New Features Coming to Your iPhone

Friday March 20, 2026 2:44 pm PDT by
iOS 26.4 isn't the major update with new Siri features that we hoped for, but there are some useful quality of life improvements, and a little bit of fun with an AI playlist generator and new emoji characters. Playlist Playground - Apple Music has a Playlist Playground option that lets you generate playlists from text-based descriptions. You can include moods, feelings, activities, or...
iPhone 18 Pro Deep Red Feature

iPhone 18 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 12 New Features

Wednesday March 18, 2026 7:39 am PDT by
While the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are not expected to launch for another six months or so, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. It was initially reported that the iPhone 18 Pro models would have fully under-screen Face ID, with only a front camera visible in the top-left corner of the screen. However, the latest rumors indicate that only one Face ID component...
Related Apple News: Studio Display Xdr | Bluetti Elite 30 V2 Power Station | Ipad Pro | Get Iphone Ask Callers Before Answer | Beats