Posted by FatKat on 10/24/05 15:27

Ablang cut & pasted:
> Newest iPod packs a fistful of video

Which is why you're wallet probably looks like somebody kicked its ass.

> SAN JOSE - The latest big news in personal technology is very tiny -
> 2.5 inches to be exact.

I knew it - SPAM.

> Designed for video-on-the-go,

Ooooh, like a portable DVD player.

> it will let consumers watch their own home movies, as well as top-rated
> television shows and music videos purchased from Apple's online music
> store, iTunes.

Oh that's right - you can't get iTunes stuff for a portable DVD player.
You actually have to have DVDs.

> In what analysts called a groundbreaking deal with Walt Disney Co. and
> its ABC network,

Remember the good old days when groundbreaking deals between
corporations actually affected good and services for the consumers? Me
neither.

> the new iPod allows consumers to buy - for $1.99
> apiece - episodes of five popular cable and TV shows, including
> "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost."
>
If I wanted to watch a copy of a TV show of dubious quality, couldn't I
just DL across a P2P network and burn it to VCD? Oh, the legality.
Well, maybe record it using a VCR or a recordable DVD player. Then you
get recordable video that's as portable as a portable DVD player.

> While the video iPod can be connected to a computer or television set
> for large-screen viewing,

Unlike DVD players which are already connected to millions of TV's and
PC's....

> the selling point will be its portability,
> especially for travelers on planes and trains.

Unlike portable DVD players...which are already available for less than
$200.
>
> "The iPod has really become a portable TiVo," said Phil Leigh, an
> analyst with Inside Digital Media in Tampa, Fla.

Strange...I don't have TiVo or an iPod, yet do have portable video when
I want it.
>
> So, basically, that sleek iPod or MP3 player you bought a year ago -
> or even last week - is now, relatively speaking, a technological
> dinosaur.

....because nobody will bother selling me one even though it does better
than a video iPod.
>
> Sorry.

That's okay. If not for doofuses like you, who'd support those poor
"New Coke" people?
>
> Of course, the video iPod isn't the only portable device capable of
> playing video - there are on-the-go DVD players and cell phones
> equipped to play video clips. And, if you have a Sony PlayStation
> Portable, you can get video downloads or watch movies on small discs.

Good morning!!
>
> Still, the latest trophy toy raises the question: Do we really need
> such technology?

I'm willing to spring the cost of getting the author a "Speak N Spell"
once any become available on E*Bay.
>
> Tiffany Nguyen says yes, most definitely.

Why do I have the feeling that Tiff is college age? It would make
sense that college students, already the favored target for credit card
companies, will be poached by Apple as well.
>
> The 18-year-old Sacramento State student came to Arden Fair mall's
> Apple Store to check out the iPod Nano; her boyfriend has one of the
> tiny MP3 players, and Nguyen wants one. News of the video iPod,
> however, has her rethinking her choices.

And we know how dangerous thinking can be. People may wonder why a
Nano should cost as much as a Mini of twice the capacity. The obvious
answer of "because it's so much smaller" necessarily raises the
question of whether there's an absolute size below which further
decreases become meaningless.
>
> In particular, she likes the idea of watching TV when and where she
> wants.

Those college students....

> "You could take (the video iPod) anywhere, on a road trip," said
> Nguyen, who says she watches about three hours of TV a day. "There
> aren't a lot of things out there that can do that - it really stands
> out."
>
Thanks for proving college students as the least fiscally sound
consumers on Earth. Portable DVD, anyone?

> Portability is precisely why the video iPod will be in high demand,
> said Beth Zimmerman, a marketing expert with Cerebellas, a Long
> Island-based company that tracks marketing and consumer trends.

Am I the only person who thinks that marketing execs exist solely to
find the weak link in consumer thinking, and just slice right through
it? Less portability, more fashionability.
>
> "People are becoming accustomed to staying informed and being
> entertained - no matter where they are, and even if the quality is
> less than optimal," Zimmerman said.

Entertained, obviously. But informed? Has Beth ever heard of a
portable DVD player?
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/customer-reviews/B00005OP2T/ref=cm_cr_dp_2_1/002-8197652-0091232?%5Fencoding=UTF8&s=electronics

I got my personal DVD player late 2003, and it's still working. It's
screen isn't made of a surface that needs a separate cover, nor is the
case made out of some miracle plastic that requires you buy another
case.

> The video iPod will have cross-generational appeal, she added.
> Teenagers and pre-teens will like it, of course - "they're very media
> savvy" - but it will also appeal to adults looking for ways to stay
> tuned in or even liven up a boring commute.

Teenagers and pre-teens will like it because tehy seem to like anything
that a marketing exec will say is preferred by the savvy. Why
commuting adults will prove as iPod-happy when many already own
DVD-equipped laptops is one of those subtleties of life that they teach
you to ignore in Marketing-101.
>
> Despite its technical superiority, don't expect the video iPod to chip
> away at the market for similar technologies such as the video cell
> phone.

expect?

> "Cell phone carriers are already experimenting with ways to improve
> their capability," said Zimmerman.

Unlike Apple, which only needs to look improved, and save the real
increases for the pricetag.
>
> Besides, she said, consumers will still want a separate cell phone
> because "you can't make a phone call with your iPod - at least not
> yet."

And that friends, is an example of foreshadowing in marketing.
>
> Which is why you'll probably still find people toting around a fistful
> of devices that are supposed to simplify their lives.

....one of which is the iPod, which strangely enough doesn't simplify
people's lives either.
>
> Perhaps, but Noelle Papilla probably won't plunk down the $300 for the
> video iPod anytime soon. The 16-year-old already has a 40 gigabyte
> iPod - purchased last year - and she's more than a little annoyed that
> her MP3 player is now virtually obsolete.

Why is it obsolete? Ad execs seem to think that the products they
market are like military weapons, like fighter jets or nuclear subs.
If the USA has a fighter jet that can shoot missles at airplanes 200
miles away, or fly twice the speed of sound - then Russian airplanes
that can't shoot from as far, or fly as fast really are obsolete.
Ipods, which aren't used in war against other iPod-owners, aren't
judged by the same rules - and it's typical for marketing execs to turn
cognitive dissonance into buyer dissatisfaction. Noelle's 40 gb iPod
isn't virtually obsolete - it still holds about 600 hours of
sound-data. Ironically, Noelle's only problem is that she likely paid
top-dollar for something because she obeyed that same urge of "gotta
get one!!" that Beth Zimmerman now attributes to the iPod video. If
Beth thinks that annoyance is well-placed, I'll gladly unload one of
those Studebaker iPods for, say, $150. Of course, Beth & Noelle can be
more than a little PO'd if there's any grain of truth in any of those
horror stories of Apple's repair policy.
>
> "It's a little much," said the Sacramento resident, who dropped by the
> Apple Store on Wednesday to browse. "(Apple) just came out with the
> Nano - and now this?"

Yes, how dare they come out with something new. Grrrrr.
>
> Besides, she added, who wants to watch episodes of "Lost" on a tiny
> screen?

We know Beth does. We also know that Beth will gladly buy you one of
those new iPods, but will probably want to charge you for it.
>
> "The screen is way too small," she said. "And where would I go to sit
> and watch it?"
>
Why on trains, planes, benches, anywhere that you see people watching
on portable DVD's (those obsolete things with the bigger screens and
smaller price tags).

> Stephen Goggin, however, likes the idea.

let me guess. Steven Goggin commutes and likes to watch TV.

>
> "I'd use one," the 31-year-old Santa Rosa resident said, after getting
> off an Amtrak train in downtown Sacramento. "I usually just listen to
> a Walkman or read a magazine - getting to watch TV would be better."
>
> And that's what Steve Jobs, chief executive of Apple, is counting on.

Will Goggin buy any Lisas? Ofcourse, Jobs is more interested in the
fact that you have to buy their shows on-line.
>
> "Never before has it been done where you can buy hit, network
> prime-time shows online the day after they air on TV and watch them on
> your computer and iPod," said Jobs during the unveiling at a packed
> California Theatre in downtown San Jose.
>
> The new iPod can hold up to 15,000 songs, 25,000 photos and more than
> 150 hours of video. The 30-gigabyte model sells for $299, the
> 60-gigabyte is $399.

And the older iPods, instead of becoming cheaper economical models,
will just disappear.
>
> The new video iPod strengthens Apple's dominance in the digital music
> player market, where it already commands about 75 percent of sales.

Conversely, it weakens dominance of the market by consumers who
actually are savvy.
>
> "It shows other network guys and studios that this is a viable market
> and is a great way to distribute their content," said analyst Ben
> Bajarin of Creative Strategies Inc. in Campbell.

If the above isn't the biggest argument for video piracy....
>
> But tech analyst Larry Magid, one of the invited guests at Wednesday's
> unveiling, questioned whether consumers will spend $1.99 apiece to buy
> a TV show or music video from iTunes. "The big market may be the
> soccer moms and dads that want to show off video of their kids," he
> said.

Nobody uses snap-shots anymore? Of course, nobody will have room in
their wallets until they go to the iPod store.
>
> In San Jose on Wednesday, Disney CEO Robert Iger hailed the Apple
> agreement, calling it "a great marriage between content and
> technology. This is the future. This is the start of really something
> big."

And if a CEO is jumoing for joy, that just means that happy times for
consumers are just around the corner, right?
>
> Or something very, very small.

Yeah, like your savings.

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