"DOES THE VIDEO IPOD MAKE A CASE FOR TINY SCREENS?"

Michael Stroud, CEO of iHollywood Forum and AO columnist, has a good post and discussion at AlwaysOn on Apple's recent move into video:

Whenever the subject of video on mobile phones comes up at my conferences, I always hear some variant of the following statement: "Two-minute video on mobile phones, great. TV shows and movies, bad. No one wants to watch long-form content on tiny screens."

That's why Apple's release of its Video iPod is so intriguing. Apple is betting that people do want to watch long-form video on tiny screens. Apple's deal with ABC to download TV programs like Desperate Housewives on iPods is groundbreaking. Once again, Steve Jobs is happily going against conventional wisdom.

I'd love to say I have an opinion on whether Jobs's bet is correct. But I don't. It's fair to say Jobs doesn't know either. Apple is opportunistic about its product releases. It throws a product into the marketing wind—say, the iPod Shuffle or the iMac Mini—and sees if it takes in the market. If it does, it ramps up production. (full article)


[tags: apple, ipod, video ipod, itunes, tech]