The fact that we're talking about the 'iPod' & Apple and not the 'iRiver xyz' I think shows it made a big difference.
Yes, I know, survivorship bias, but apple has a history of not releases products unless they think they're good enough (for their own definition of good) and if apple hadn't had found a way to make it store enough songs to be a differentiator we probably would never have heard of the iPod, nor would we be talking about it today
To be more clear, I think apple wouldn't have made the iPod at all unless they got the storage where they wanted it. So maybe the amount of storage didn't matter to users in the end (anecdotally it did to me but anyway) the product probably wouldn't have existed until some other storage revolution happened.
Hah, no. It was their world class commercials. Not a single one of my twenty-something friends bought because of specs when they came out. It was these that everyone talked about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTs5pOn7XFU
At some point, great ads still need to be backed up by a good product, if the iPod was crap people wouldn't keep buying them no matter how good the ads.
Yes, I know, survivorship bias, but apple has a history of not releases products unless they think they're good enough (for their own definition of good) and if apple hadn't had found a way to make it store enough songs to be a differentiator we probably would never have heard of the iPod, nor would we be talking about it today