“The rumor mill has been buzzing of late with word of a new kind of iPod — one capable of playing videos. And that has Apple watchers wondering how chief exec Steve Jobs might position the new product. After all, Jobs has downplayed the potential of such a device for years, arguing that the iPod’s small screen would make it a lousy machine on which to watch a movie,” Peter Burrows writes for BusinessWeek.
“Yet something is in the works. Apple has been talking to record labels about licensing music videos so they can be sold for $2 or so on its iTunes Music Store, says one music industry executive. Media reports suggest Apple is also in talks with TV studios including Disney about getting the rights to other kinds of programming,” Burrows writes. “Will Jobs really change his tune on the subject? Probably not. While some expect the company to unveil a revolutionary new kind of iPod, designed specifically for playing video, chances are the company will simply fold some video capabilities into all future iPods.”
Burrows writes, “Maybe Apple can turn its online store, which now generates little profit, into a big moneymaker by pushing more types of media through its virtual gates. ‘Maybe it turns out that iTunes becomes a general server for all kinds of content,’ says technology analyst Mark Anderson, founder of Strategic News Service. ‘Maybe his dream is to be the chokehold for all this content.'”
Full article here.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Apple’s ‘pure genius’ will soon make iTunes’ portal the ‘number one destination on the Internet’ – July 26, 2005
Video iPod? Does The Wall Street Journal have a ‘Deep Throat’ inside Apple Computer? – July 25, 2005
Cringely: Apple’s soon-to-come ‘iVideo’ movie download service very important to Intel – July 23, 2005
Selling music videos on Apple’s iTunes makes economic sense – July 19, 2005
Report: Disney considers teaming with Apple to deliver iPod video content – July 19, 2005
Ars Technica peeks at Apple’s portable video plans – July 18, 2005
More info about Apple’s reported iPod+iTunes video talks – July 18, 2005
WSJ: Apple in video iTunes talks, may unveil video iPod by September – July 18, 2005
Cringely: Apple working on HD movie download service and Video iPod – July 15, 2005
Cringley: Apple and Intel to merge; Steve Jobs finally beats Bill Gates – June 09, 2005
Apple’s shift to Intel really all about Hollywood, owning the living room, and Transitive – June 05, 2005
Cringely: This week changed the world of high tech forever – May 13, 2005
Cringely: Apple prepping Video iTunes, Video iPod, and setting stage for iPod clones – May 06, 2005
Cringely: the full story about Apple Mac mini’s purpose has not yet been told – January 21, 2005
As Seen On TV….
google it!
maybe the iTunes Music store will start to sell books, vacuums & other crap like Amazon.com. Likely? Probably not, but heck, any speculation is interesting and get page hits as long as you relate it to APPLE COMPUTER. (can you say iPod journalist whore Halo effect?)
imagine watching your favorite videos on your iPod ..
while youre driving !
First off – No duh…. ( I was going to say something different, but I don’t think they would like “no $#!@” so I didn’t )
Secondly, your wrong. If and when they come out with a video ipod, it will be sold side by side with non-video ipods and will be announced as a new product. Some people will love it, and some people will hate it.
Buyers will look at the ‘video’ ipod that’s [I]only[/I] $200 more than the ipod and it has a bigger screen and they will buy it. Early adopters will buy it. People who actually have a reason to carry a tivo in their pocket (grandparents, salespeople who do demos, parents who travel with their kids, etc) will buy one –
(And don’t misunderstand, that is really what we are talking about here – a tivo that fits in your pocket. This is the year of HD.)
And everyone else will say – “Who needs an iPod that plays video? That’s useless…”
Then, when apple have made a little extra money off of the early adopters and sold off much of the existing stock of non-video ipods, that’s when this article will be correct. Non-video ipods will fade out and there will be only one full size ipod model available. And, it will play video for anyone who cares.
Aghh – damn it –
I hate it when people confuse ‘your’ with ‘you’re’ – and I went and did it myself.
Wish I could edit……
Not iPod videos… they’re gonna use the new multimedia chips from PortalPlayer and stick em in a new Airport Express. Didn’t Schiller already say they would rather stream video over wireless to a TV than try and make an iPod video? That makes a heck of a lot more sense than an iPod video and keeps the Mac at the center of the digital hub. This is the same thing that happened when people noticed Apple buying lots of flash chips and color displays, they assumed it would be one product instead of the actual color iPod screens and the iPod shuffle.
Eventually those chips will end up in the iPods too, it’s just not the focus of their video efforts. To think they’re doing all those negotiations just to feed an iPod video is kind of silly.
like duh
Apple better improve the iPod battery life. Video playback will eat up that stated 12 hours of MP3 playback time really quick.
I could see music videos and home movies as a possible novelty, but anything longer would be annoying on the current iPod screen.
Video iPod already exist. It is called a 12″ iBook loaded with a DVD Player and iTunes.
Seeing as how the rumors of a widescreen iBook display turned a decent set of upgrades to the disappointment of the week…
Let’s keep guessing and debating rumors until everyone’s worked up to the point that whatever apple puts out will piss us off somehow.
How about we all just chill and wait for Apple to release whatever amazing product/service it’s working on and not speculate out our a**es?
The only way this would work is if the screen is at least as big as (if not bigger than) the PSP.
I think an iPod capable of playing video will come in time, but it will be a secondary function, like looking at photos is. They needed to put a colour screen in not because it made the iPod a significantly better device, but because up and coming rivals were shipping with pointless colour screens.
So to justify the colour screen, the invent the photo feature. That colour screen is capable of showing crappy video, and the video out port is capable of displaying video on a TV. So it’s just a case of waiting until the chipsets are powerful enough at a low enough price that make it a no-brainer to allow the iPod to play video.
It won’t be added because it needs to play video to make sales, it’s because it might as well be a feature they add if it doesn’t intefere with the music functions. Some people will use it and some people won’t give a monkey’s chuff.
“analyst Mark Anderson, founder of Strategic News Service. ‘Maybe his dream is to be the chokehold for all this content.'” “
Interesting phrase… Why does is it a “chokehold” and not a “conduit”? Why the perjorative? If Apple hadn’t launched iTunes for music we would still be having daily arguments pirated downloads vs outrageously expensive CDs. Apple’s conduit for music didn’t place any kind of “chokehold” on the music industry. Instead, it relieved a lot pressure that threated to destroy the music industry.
Who cares!
I hate subscription services, there is no way I’m going to get locked into a monthly fee, cell phones are bad enough. And I would rather see a movie the way it was designed to be seen, on the big screen with THX sound, have you seen Spiderman 2 on the PSP? Ridiculous! Why bother!
Mw= help
as in, help me I been hipmotized!
Still looking for Newton II – touch sensitive tablet that controls your media and plays video as a sideline not a principal feature. WiFi Bluetooth et al of course.
hm.. if the screen get bigger, it can work..but it’s NOT an ipod
rumors has it that APPLE been buying up Sharp’s LH7A400 SOC (system on a chip) to power video playback.
Can’t wait until video hits the dock.
any clue when it will come out?
It’s not about playing video on a 2 inch screen.
It’s about plugging into the TV.
It’s like having a DVD player in your pocket without the hassel of actually having a DVD player and a pile of DVDs, that will only get scratched and fingerprinted.
Wild guessing the new iPod is say 80gigs (the next logical step from 60) thats a lot of movies AND music you can carry in a cigarette packet sized unit.
Plug the headphones into your ears/stereo, and plug the video out into your TV, or watch on small screen if need to (stuck in an elevator), it is optional.
Personally, I like having a personal movie collection. And there are many movies that I watch over and over again. Would I pay for music videos? No, because because I can get them for free off cable. As for movies I can get them for a small fee from my local video store and then rip, compress and copy for a much lower price than what the movie companies will make us pay.
Regarding movies the prices charged in store for dvds are ridiculous. Music goes on my ipod and that’s mostly from cds (because I can specify the bit rate). I refuse to do free downloads because I think everyone is entitled to make a buck. But the price point for movies would have to be cheaper than the price of a dvd rental and a blank dvd.
I know many readers won’t agree with what I’m saying but as far as movies are concerned, I’ve got a collection of over 200 and I and many others (including all of my friends and family) sleep well at night.
OK – the OTHER Steve Jobs, why did AS Seen On TV disappear? Was he fired? Bored?
I’m waiting for an Apple Video Store with a video enabled AirPort Express with a new remote control tablet device so you can control what you stream from your Mac to your TV or Stereo. I see an iPod as maybe a good stoage place for video, and add S-Video out and Stereo connectors – or maybe firewire – which someone said are being added to new TVs.
Personally – I’d be more exicted about the Video AiPort/Tablet remote than a video iPod.
Don, you are bang on.
Duh, (the guy who made the next post), you are an idiot.
It’s amazing to find this article and how old most of the comments are and more importantly how wrong almost everyone was about what the iPod was going to bring and where apple was going with the iPod Video and now the iPhone.
To read more about the new Apple iPhone check out…
http://www.bryanhauer.com/2007/01/09/apple-iphone-a-revolutionary-multi-media-widescreen-internet-device/
Bryan