“According to a survey, Europeans are not interested in a gadget that would play music and video. The survey by Jupiter Research found that just five per cent are interested in a device that plays both music and video. Over a quarter (27 per cent) were only interested in a gadget that just plays music. Jupiter questioned 5,000 consumers from Britain, Germany, France, Sweden, Spain and Italy,” Karen Haslam reports for Macworld UK. “The findings go some way to back up Apple CEO Steve Jobs claims that there is no market for portable video on the iPod. He doesn’t believe that people would want to watch movies on the small screen, in public.”
“The results do not bode well for Microsoft Corp., which has embarked on an ambitious effort to kickstart a new market for digital devices that play music and movies on its Portable Media Center software. And Apple Computer has announced plans to introduce souped-up iPods that enable consumers to view photos as well as listen to songs,” Reuters reports. “The problem with the do-everything-devices is they are too bulky, too pricey and there is a relative shortage of multimedia content to play on them, according to Ian Fogg, a Jupiter Research analyst.”
Full article here.
iPod Photo will become the new sleeper hit for people doing most types of PowerPoint/Keynote presentations. It’s small and perfect! A third party market with add-ons for this will spring up before you know it.
For more complex presentations involving moving video, there is always the iBook/PowerBook.
Barry wrote:
Actually, the percentage of folk who would be interested in a videoPod is about 15% of all potential iPod customers (5% out of 32%). This is still a larger number than I would have thought.
No, actually its 1.6% (.05 x .32 = .016 or 1.6%
Twenty Benson
What do you mean headphones aren’t part of IPods? Technically they may be accessories but all iPods ship with headphones…they’re a music device (initially) after all. You can upgrade your headphones if you don’t like the earbuds. Check the site
Well.. at least people want to carry around photos.. kinda like.. IN YOUR WALLET! We have Broadband proliferation now, Man! You can send photos to people in groups.. hey SJ, how do i send a friend a slideshow of that concert i went to the other day, along with accompanying music.. is there some kindof .acg file…
advanced coding group
sls file.. slideshow?
Oh yeah.. BTW.. we’ve had portable TV’s for a while now.. no one uses them, nor does anyone want to, other than Husbands on sitcoms watching “the game” in church
Not Mike:
You don’t need to carry around your computer to transfer photos from your camera to your iPod. Belkin makes a gizmo that does just that. It’s called a Media Reader. Just hook it up to your iPod and it transfers all the contents of your camera to the iPod. Voila!!
Eric24601: “ust hook it up to your iPod and it transfers all the contents of your camera to the iPod”
but you can’t view those photos on the ipod until you import them in to iphoto on your computer at home.
Aryugaetu;
You are right. It would be usefull to be able to do all those things.
The device that you are thinking of is called a CD ROM , you can purchase one NOW for about $ .25
It will save you $495.75
Domo
I think the iPod photo should support keynote presentations. Just plug it into a projector then control it with the clickwheel.
doP1
dont forget to view those CD ROMs you need a reader and to run the reader you need a laptop for portability, add $1000 to that $0.25, now the ipod just saved you $500!
doP1
dont forget to view those CD ROMs you need a reader and to run the reader you need a laptop for portability, add $1000 to that $0.25, now the ipod just saved you $500!
I prefer desktop machines, but I would like a way to transport and view/listen to my music, photos and videos without getting another computer. An iPod with video would work perfect.
The iPod Photo is close, not more lugging around CDs, or spending $$$$$ on inkjet ink and photo paper. Now I just need to remove transporting Video tapes and DVD in the car for the kids to watch in the car or having to weed through the stacks of movies under the TV to find what I want to watch. Or having the kids destroy DVDs trying to jam them in the player.
Re: Twenty Benson
Everybody in the media are talking about how great iPod Photo is. Newspapers, magazines, everyone.
If you had to choose between a 40 gig iPod and a 40 gig iPod Photo… which one would you choose?
Even if I don’t want to carry around all my pictures, I would still choose iPod Photo… I think anyone would. (price aside)
PC users dismissed the GUI and mouse back in the DOS days. Now PC users like to talk about how their PC’s come with a 2 button mouse unlike the Mac.
As I recall, Mac users in the System 7/8 days dismissed the ideas of preemptive multitasking, memory protection, and automatic memory management. Who needs these buzzwords? How hard is it to click Get Info and change the memory amount?
Then Apple introduced Mac OS X. Suddenly, all the people who dismissed those OS features started praising OS X for those very same features. Suddenly, OS 9 began to have weaknesses which they never admitted to before.
I think people are dismissing the video iPod concept simply because Apple currently doesn’t offer one. If history repeats itself, the same video iPod detractors will turn around and start praising Apple if they do introduce a video iPod one day. “Apple did it again!” “Now you can carry your entire iLife in your pocket!” “Share your homemade iMovies and hook up to a TV!”
Trouble with your argument is MSBlaster – 2 inch telly’s have been around for about 40 years. No one has ever wanted them.
I’m happy to carry around my music collection in my pocket because I have always enjoyed listening to music when I’m out and about, and the more I have to choose from the better.
To be honest, I’ve never really lost that much sleep over not having my pocket stuffed full my home videos every time I walkout the front door – or for that matter my entire back catalogue on holiday snaps. And I don’t think I’ve ever yet seen anyone in public with a ‘portable’ DVD player, a hand-held slide viewer, or a pocket TV etc etc – technology which has been around if not for decades then for for years. Now ask yourself honestly… do you REALLY have such a great desire to make sure you’ve got Uncle Bill’s 74th Birthday party from 1993 loaded onto your iPod every day so you can squint at it for the 128th time on the bus to work?
Apple won’t be saying “Now you can carry your entire iLife in your pocket!” for the simple reason that they’re not Microsoft.
Trouble with your argument is MSBlaster – 2 inch telly’s have been around for about 40 years. No one has ever wanted them.
I’m happy to carry around my music collection in my pocket because I have always enjoyed listening to music when I’m out and about, and the more I have to choose from the better.
To be honest, I’ve never really lost that much sleep over not having my pocket stuffed full my home videos every time I walkout the front door – or for that matter my entire back catalogue on holiday snaps. And I don’t think I’ve ever yet seen anyone in public with a ‘portable’ DVD player, a hand-held slide viewer, or a pocket TV etc etc – technology which has been around if not for decades then for for years. Now ask yourself honestly… do you REALLY have such a great desire to make sure you’ve got Uncle Bill’s 74th Birthday party from 1993 loaded onto your iPod every day so you can squint at it for the 128th time on the bus to work?
Apple won’t be saying “Now you can carry your entire iLife in your pocket!” for the simple reason that they’re not Microsoft.
I don’t know how many times I gotta say it. It’s not about the 2inch screen, forget the 2inch screen, get a black texter pen and paint it black. It’s about being able to plug into a telly and watch movies there.
But i agree you grow tired of movies a lot quicker than music.
The Shadow is coming…
MS Blaster…
Yeah! Except for one thing..
A TV show takes 22 minutes to watch..
A movie takes 1.5-2.5 hrs to watch…
The difference between a song and a picture.. and a movie, besides the obvious, is the amount of time it takes.. Namely, Pictures elicit memories, but movies TELL STORIES..
I dont know what the circumstances are for having a Zen Monster in your pocket on the subway or whatever.. and wanting to watch Saving Private Ryan.. I just don’t get it…
Bill Gates car ride example would be the exception that proves the rule..
then again, when you’re the richest man on Earth, I think you can afford TV’s in the back seat…
What about the general public.. will they offer their kids more TV to cover 24hrs a day of the boob tube? Well.. no.. most people will probably ask themselves why anyone would want to buy something you’re only going to use once in a while..
The iPod Photo, on the other hand, does the music thing ALL THE TIME.. and it doesnt compromise form factor.
so instead of focusing on pictures, you’re focusing on music.. and while you’re doing that, you can look at pictures, etc.. or album art, it’s great!
That being said.. Economies of scale dictate that this is a premium device at least for the first year.. maybe next year they’ll be selling minis for $149..and then everything else comes dows $100
Why can�t American fuckers vote Bush if Osama ask�s nicely?
Go! Vote!
I think One guy is obsessed with Osama, he must know him well to know his thoughts!
I don’t want to watch video’s on a 2 inch screen. If I want to watch a video I have my iBook which does quite nicely. It’s not practical to walk and watch at the same time. Glare and sunlight would wash out the screen. It’s just to small to really see any benefits from. Just like those portable DVD players.
Why use one of those when most laptops can do the exact same thing plus be useful in other things as well. Microsoft will see it’s not going to work.
When the Power Mac G4 was originally introduced with a DVD-ROM drive but no CD-RW, people defended it with: “Why do you need an internal CD-R drive? Just use Firewire”
Then, when G4’s started shipping with internal CD-RW drives but no DVD playback, people defended it with: “Why would anyone ever want to watch a movie on a computer? Get a big screen TV!”
And now that both CD burning and DVD playback are standard on all Macs: “Why would anyone ever want to play video from an iPod connected to a big screen TV? Get a 12 inch iBook!”
Flip-flop, flip-flop, flip-flop….
The problem with portable video is that there is no content for it. There is nothing that makes me say: “I must have a Portable Media Centre to watch that!”. Sure you can record television shows in the computer but those are too long to watch in a portable device.
I think portable video will take off only if the content for it exists. It has to be something short that looks good in a low resolution. Maybe video clips, commercials and short films. Any suggestions?
MS Blaster, No one’s arguing that the iPod would be a good hard disc for transporting video from A to B but that doesn’t make it the type of portable media player Microsoft are pursuing (and the type that this article is about) – it makes it little more than a small external hard drive. You can already use the iPod for loading up big files to carry to another site – including video files if you don’t want to simply burn a cheap DVD. So what EXACTLY is it you want the iPod to do? My guess is most people with a ‘big screen TV’ will also have several playback formats to use with it such as DVD, video, TiVo.
It’s all very well accusing people here of being sheep, but unless you think through what you actually want then it’s YOU who is approaching future media in the same way as Bill Gates.