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Video iPod Apple's First Bad Move?
An anonymous reader writes "Apple has had a lot of success with the iPod brand the past few years. The NYT has an article up wondering if, just maybe, this week's release of the video iPod was too soon." From the article: "Everyone from Microsoft to Comcast - in other words, the usual suspects - is working on or looking at similar pocket-size recorders. At least two companies, Pace Micro Technology of Britain and Samsung of South Korea, have said they plan to introduce models early next year. There is also TivoToGo, a service that can forward recorded shows to various mobile devices, even Sony PSP handheld gaming units ... [anyway,] the video iPod only has it half right: if it took material from the television as readily as it did from the Internet, it could be a blockbuster. But then who would pay $1.99 to download an episode of 'Lost' from iTunes if the iPod could also hook up to your television and record that same episode free? Unlike its musical forebear, the video iPod may not be ready for prime time. "
iPod mini 4 gig (end of 2003)
"Too expensive" ($249)
"It's ugly"
"Will cannibalize iPod sales"
"Not enough storage"
"Big flop.. Apple is through"
The ipod mini, so great they discontinued it within 2 years...
The ipod nano might be a flop. The original ipod was a flop and they had to radically change things. The shuffle hardly set trees on fire either.
The video ipod won't get very far, the sort of video files which are convenient to download for anyone other than technogeeks with high-speed broadband usually get played on mobile phones anyway.
It's funny how the apple zealots want to create their own siege mentality as well. Most of the ipod's success is based on marketing, it's that good an mp3 player. Like with Microsoft, the marketing department is more important than all the others.
Lord knows that Apple would never make a product that crashes all the time and has idiotic memory management :)
Whenever I hear the word 'Innovation', I reach for my pistol.
No, I've been around enough to remember what you are talking about. But Slashdot was taken over by Apple Zealots some years ago, and the "Linux & OGG on the iRiver" crowd is non-factor around here nowdays. You could figure that out if you checked the posts & moderation on this story -- there's only an extreme minority who has anything negative to say about the iPod.
Whenever I hear the word 'Innovation', I reach for my pistol.
"people tend to have a psychological aversion to watching TV on the computer"
Really? A psychological aversion? Where's that in the DSM-IV?
"definitely not the monitor de jure"
I'm pretty sure that "de jure" isn't even the same language as the phrase you're looking for...
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
I still totally fail to understand this psychological aversion. A Tivo is a computer. Do people have a psychological aversion to using Tivos?
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!