“Roger Kay, president of research firm Endpoint Technologies, Inc., rated Apple’s positioning of the video iPod as a conservative play, because the company isn’t offering more expensive iPods with video playback as a premium. Instead, the company is replacing previous models with similarly priced iPods,” Mike Musgrove reports for The Washington Post.
“Kay predicted that the gadget may appeal to a young generation that grew up with their eyes glued to Game Boy video game systems. But he said he doubted that many older iPod fans will find much time to watch video content on the devices — or invest the 10 to 20 minutes it will take to download the latest episode of ‘Lost,'” Musgrove reports.
Musgrove reports, “A video-playing iPod had been the subject of speculation by analysts and fans of Apple’s Mac computers for at least a year. Heavy Internet traffic caused Mac news and rumor sites to crash in the hours leading up to the announcements. One site that managed to stay online complained that the venue that Apple had chosen, the California Theater in San Jose, was in ‘a cellular dead zone.'”
Full article here.
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• The new iPods actually offer more for less money. They’re thinner, have more or equal storage, have better screens, and play video.
• Nobody “invests” 10 to 20 minutes to download “Lost.” It took us 1/3rd of a second to click “Buy” and then click on Safari to surf around and read Kay’s blather. “Lost” was down by the time we typed this up. Aren’t we damned efficient multitaskers?
• Heavy Internet traffic did indeed put a bit of a kibosh on us for a time, but we never crashed and traffic has now eased enough that we’re back in business!
Related articles:
Analyst: ‘media companies will call Apple to strike deals, Front Row is Media Center done right’ – October 12, 2005
Analyst: Apple rewriting media distribution rules, more people will consider switching to Mac now – October 12, 2005
Apple and Disney usher in new media era – October 12, 2005
Apple posts QuickTime of ‘One More Thing’ special media event – October 12, 2005
Apple’s Front Row with Apple Remote and iMac G5: media center done right – October 12, 2005
Apple introduces new thinner iMac G5 with built-in iSight video camera, ‘Front Row’ media experience – October 12, 2005
Apple releases iTunes 6 with 2,000 music videos, Pixar short films & hit TV shows for $1.99 – October 12, 2005
Apple unveils new 5th generation iPod, now plays music, photos, and video – October 12, 2005
Mac stuff dosn’t crash, what are you telling ’em that for?
Media people are so clueless…The TV show idea is pretty cool but how many people have TiVo’s which also allow one to skip the ads and watch at any time? Even an old VCR works too but taking it with you on the go to watch later…at $1.99 wow. I don’t see a huge market but a nice feature to expand the capabilities of itunes/ipod. Just my 2 cents
I was struggling to view macbytes, mac rumors and MDN at 6am NZST 13/10/2005 (10am US) via dial up… They were ok when I got to work though about 2.5 hours later
There is a conflict between two of the largest internet backbone companies which is responsible for the recent internet slowdown, they have cut off from each other.
Sure the net is designed to flow around, but the direct link between these two companies was faster.
MacDude – Please tell me more about the slowdown on the Internet caused by the two backbone companies. I have noticed my dial-up connection is very slow lately. I didn’t know if it was Earthlink, my phone line or what. But, of all the sites, MacDailyNews seems to be one of the slowest. I was also wondering if this site does something to slow it down. Do you have a link explaining what you are talking about?
I think this is the beginning of Apple having a decent TV/Movie/VodCast content store. Too bad they are starting slow. But yesterday on CNBC, Steve Jobs said that there was established demand for taking music on the go dating back to cassette walkmans. He said no one really knows if there will be demand for video, so they are taking it slow.
http://news.com.com/2100-1038_3-5889592.html
MacDude is talking about that article
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It’s too bad that they have totally killed support for Firewire in the iPods. I wonder if the iPods that can play video have enough power to encode video in real time as well. Imagine plugging in an iSight and having a Digital Camcorder. If you are already carrying your iPod, carrying an iSight is not that much extra to be able to record lots of video and sound. That would push me over the edge of getting an iSight and a new iPod. Right now, I have a 3G and no compelling reason to upgrade.