The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that when it came time to make the iPod work like the iPod, Apple turned to a small startup named Pixo. According to the report, Apple approached the company for help in getting the iPod ready for market. From the article:
After weeks of hammering out the business side of the deal, Pixo was on board to help Apple create an operating system that would run the user interface of the iPod.
"We were able to get something running and demonstrate it in a couple of weeks,” said Paul Mercer, founder of Pixo, which was sold to Sun Microsystems last year. Although more time was needed to work out the kinks and add features, the project was essentially finished in time for Apple to put iPods on store shelves by November 2001.
[…]
An Apple representative refused to comment about Pixo’s involvement except to say that the company contributed a piece of technology in the iPod’s development.
There’s a lot more about Pixo, the company’s background, its involvement with Apple, and new plans for products, in the full article at the San Francisco Chronicle. We recommend it as an interesting read.
The Mac Observer Spin:
Some may look at this as a "Apple couldn’t do it themselves" kind of thing, but we see it differently. This article shows us that Apple has changed in a very fundamental way: The company is long past its Not Invented Here mentality, and willingly turns to outside sources when necessary. In this particular case, it was also the company being able to turn to outside sources for an idea it had already developed that makes it all that much better. Obviously it worked out well.