During my subway ride this morning I had an iEpiphany. After I was forced to use the privilege of squeezing against strangers, I charged towards an empty seat. To my left was a woman getting ready to work, holding her iPod. I wasn’t sure so I had to look again (you tend to stare while in the subway) she was holding one of the classic iPods, not the one Steve Jobs recently named the classic, but the actual just-came-out in 2001 and has the four buttons above the wheel, classic.

I had to think back to when I last saw one when I realized it wasn’t so long ago! I remember looking at the people with the white headphones enjoying the privilege to be ‘one of the first’, and the news warning against iPod theft in the subway. After all, such a rear and expensive object had to be safeguarded.

Going on with my ride, a second later a woman walks in holding the brand new touch-iPod. It was a nice coincidence sitting between the old-school version and the high-tech one. I didn’t have a chance to enjoy my thought when I saw that the guy across the aisle was holding a blue nano, and the girl next to him a shuffle and all along I was too lazy to take the U2 version out of my bag.

Now, don’t get me wrong, these were five minutes on a regular Tuesday morning. But it isn’t just about ‘being the first’ anymore (the iPhone being excluded) it is about a way of life we were raised into. In less then 10 years Apple has changed the way we listen to music. It’s not that it wasn’t there before, we all had those weird looking mp3s, they just made it fun, appealing and very easy to use.

The days of the iPod being an expensive Christmas gif are officially over, it is no longer a luxury but a necessity. It has been clear for a while, but with the latest price slashes from Apple on their products now it’s sealed.

You do know what it means, if the iPod is no longer the ‘it thing’ they have something else brewing in Seattle.