Remember the days when we referred to any personal portable audio player as a “Walkman.” It didn’t matter if the cassette player was a Sony, or even a cassette player. If someone had headphones on when they were walking around, they were listening to their “Walkman.”

This is because Sony was first to the market with the idea, and they did a really good job of marketing. The term has been a part of our language for 20 years.

But after 20 years a new company has come along that, again, was first to market with an innovation and has even stronger marketing skills. Personal Audio players now are referred to as “iPods.” It doesn’t matter what the brand is, or even if the device is an mp3 player or another portable device that you can listen to music on. If someone has headphones on when they are walking around they are listening to their “iPod.”

It’s hard to imagine that this will ever change again, but clearly Apple has proved it is possible to change people’s language if you’re good enough. Will it ever change again?