Short of an actual prize, one of the most coveted handouts at this year's Grammy Awards, Academy Awards and MTV Video Music Awards was the iPod music player stashed in celebrity goody bags.
The bags are sometimes filled with specific recipients in mind. Pamela Anderson reportedly doesn't get fur and Alicia Keys, who has spoken publicly against the illegal trade in diamonds, isn't given any of those. Bono, of the band U2, does get sunglasses, of which he is fond.
The one constant that doesn't diminish in popularity among the stars is the iPod. Highlighting its chic, rapper Sean "P. Diddy" Combs showed up at the post-MTV awards party brandishing an iPod encrusted with 120 diamonds.
Sales of iPods, which Apple Computer Inc. introduced in October 2001, are expected to hit 10 million by the end of the year. The success of the digital music player has burnished Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple's image as a maker of sleek, elegant computers.
But as with any pop culture phenomenon, iPod's popularity could fizzle as public tastes change.
"With a lot of pop culture products, if something becomes so much of its time, then it becomes a parody of itself," said Robert Thompson, a professor of media and popular culture at Syracuse University. " 'Miami Vice' was so incredibly hip on TV and became so associated with the mid-80s, but three years later you couldn't watch it without bursting out in laughter."
Apple founder Steve Jobs said he wasn't worried that iPod might one day be considered the Rubik's Cube of the 21st century. Instead, he said, iPod is capitalizing on a fundamental shift in the way people buy and enjoy entertainment in the digital age.
Online music sales are growing rapidly -- fueled in large part by Apple's iTunes Music Store -- and the popularity of digital video recorders like those made by TiVo Inc. underscores people's desire to slice and dice entertainment to suit their personal tastes.
"I don't think we're seeing trendiness here," Jobs said of the iPod. "I think we're seeing a product that's truly revolutionizing the way we listen to music. We didn't sell 2 million of them last quarter because it's trendy, we sold 2 million last quarter because it's a phenomenal product that's reinventing the way people enjoy music."
Jobs has a lot riding on being right.
