Kiosk.net

I’ve said some positive things about the Apple iPod Video, and I’ve said some negative things about the Apple iPod Video. At its best, it may revolutionize the video market. At its worse, it’ll be another mp3 player with a fancy, barely usable video feature. I never doubted that video on iTunes would capture the attention and wallets of audiences, but I don’t think anyone was expecting this. One million videos sold in iTunes in twenty days is pretty incredible.

But I’ve been doing some more thinking, and I’m now prepared to make some changes to my original predictions regarding viewing habits.

In an earlier post, I said that most people would not want to watch a lot of TV on their iPods. Hooking it up to a real TV was one thing, watching on the computer on iTunes, sure. But actually watching in the iPod doesn’t seem practical. Video is more interactive than music, and takes more concentration. You can’t watch while you jog or drive. An episode of Lost is almost an hour long and requires a significant time investment to fully enjoy. A song is 3-5 minutes long and can serve as background noise as well as an aural experience. And if you’re going to watch a TV program, why do it on a 2.5″ screen when you have a plasma at home?

Makes sense. But today something occurred to me: The highest selling game consul of all time is Nintendo’s Game Boy Advance. It sold more than the N64, more than the Game Cube, more than Play Station 1, 2, and probably 3. And it has a small screen. And you have to watch it. In fact, it’s more interactive than television. So what if video games is a niche market compared with TV? Portable TV can be a niche market. It may not be the best way to watch an episode of Desperate Housewives, but what about half hour shows that usually last 22 minutes? What about short cartoons? Many shows on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim (aka, the iPod market) are only 15 minutes long. I’ve spent twice that long on a subway and three times that long on a train. What about on a long car trip? Anywhere you’d want to bring a gameboy, the Video iPod can be there.

And once you get to where you’re going, you can still plug it into the television like a VCR.

And, in other news:

Robert Cringely now reports that “There’s an outfit called DVDstation that puts video distribution kiosks in stores and malls. As its name implies, you go to the DVDstation to pick out a movie and burn it on a DVD right there. Well, DVDstation just announced that you can plug your video-enabled iPod into their kiosk and download an HD movie in 90 seconds or less.”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 2nd, 2005 at 4:35 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.