Study questions popularity of iPod video

Nielsen Media Research gathers its first data on the audience for Apple's device, calling into question the prevalence of video viewing.

The story "Study questions popularity of iPod video" published November 20, 2006 at 11:22 AM is no longer available on CNET News.

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[thanhvn]

not too surprising...

...given that a) ipod video can only play Apple-DRM'd videos, and b) videos drain battery life. I don't know about others, but a significant portion of my music and video collection is non-DRM'd. If only I can play my non-DRM'd mpg and avi and mov and rm and wmv files on the ipod :-(

[lesfilip]

Wrong

It will definately play non-DRM'd video. What are you talking
about?

The formats are limited to mp4 and h.264, though. Not a
problem unless your format of choice is primarily distributed
through peer to peer networks, which may explain why divx and
Xvid is not native to the iPod. You could always use an open
source converter to recode your videos if you are part of the 2%
of people who would actually try to watch them on an iPod.

As far as battery life goes, it's about the same for anything that
plays video.

Have a nice day!

[tedk7]

plain flat-out lie

You're either trolling or clueless.

[lesfilip]

Steve Jobs already knew this

Steve Jobs said the same thing - that video was not a priority to
customers - from the beginning. That is why he resisted adding
it to the iPod early on like many other companies did for their
own offerings. But although people may not be watching movies
or videos on their iPods, they are certainly using them to move
their media around. iPods are great pocket-sized high capacity
hard drives.

For watching movies, however, there is no match for a big
honkin' flat screen TV on the living room wall.

Have a nice day!

[imacpwr]

No, my iPod is NOT going to replace my 32" wide screen TV..!!

Video on my iPod is a novelty, "HELLO" what's it's NOT going to do
is replace my 32" wide screen TV...!!!!

[yikes31]

didnt buy an ipod to watch movies

I have a (non video) G3 Ipod. It doesnt have video or picture
capability and monoscreen. I didnt buy it for pretty pictures or
TV progs. I bought it for my music collection and whatever
music I will add to it.
If (or when) I replace my ipod, I have no interest (at the moment)
of watching movies or TV anyway. All I want is something that I
can listen to music on, enjoy podcasts and audio books and use
as a back up device - if I need one.
The only reason for me considering replacing my Ipod would be
to get one with a better battery life and reduced size! And right
now, the replacement would clearly be another Ipod.

[smithjones]

The real question is...

Who paid for the neilson study? They have to get paid somehow to
put time and effort into doing a study..., other wise they wouldn't
have much of a business plan by doing studies for free.
Again I ask..., who plopped down the bucks to find this info out?
I noticed the iPod was singled out amongst other video players out
there as well. No mention of other video players in study.

[gwats1957]

No it is not a replacement for my big screen but....

It is a great way way to kill 10 minutes quietly while commuting or
flying.

[gwats1957]

No it is not a replacement for my big screen but....

It is a great way way to kill 10 minutes quietly while commuting or
flying.

[rleon]

There are better options

While flying I kill cops on GTA via PSP. Now that is GREAT!

[bobmc]

Ipod Video

I have a 75 inch Sony TV but at night I watch my Ipod snuggled next to my pillow. It's great and it turns itself off when the videos done.

[El Kabong]

Portable video?

It might make sense once there are video headsets (just as there are audio headsets for listening) that don't rot your brain or befuddle your eyesight.
It's just hard to believe that the same people who are willing to spend ten times the amount of a standard CRT in order to have 60" flat panels will EVER be willing to squint at that itty-bitty screen just for the novelty of it.

[Ryo Hazuki]

And thus pisses off many people

After reading the posts of Apple fanboys here, one can only conclude anything that questions the popularity of Apple products must be wrong by nature.
I don't need anyone to tell me wether the iPod is popular or not, I know it is and it's the best MP3 player on the market, IMHO, but facts numbers are numbers.

[technewsjunkie]

Nascent market, small format content, lots of upside

It's a nascent market with lots of upside.
The best small format content uses a lot of close-ups, "talking
heads", this is good for training applications and informationals
(iPod VideoCasts),
I want more content. The Alfred Hitchcock series is fabuolous, but
I'd LOVE the Original Twilight Zone series! Both the Hitchcock and
TZ actually work relatively well on small screens because, as I
stated earlier, the use of head shots, great dialog, closeups.

[El Kabong]

Congratulations...

on having microscopic vision!

[bluemist9999]

Music much more portable than video

From a technical perspective, it's easy to create mobile video ---compress data, shove it onto a small hard drive, decode it onto an LCD screen.

However, if I'm walking somewhere, it's much easier to play music (all I need do is listen, I can hold the iPod however I want) than to play video (I need to hold the iPod a specific way and look at it instead of looking where I'm going).

So I don't really see major adoption of mobile TV/video except by people who are commuting some way besides driving a car, and frequent travellers.

[scarlette999]

question on the article

I would like to know if this statement "By Apple's own count, nearly 70 million iPods have been sold to date" is for the US market? or if it is for international sales?

Thank you!

[lesfilip]

Answer

Total sales, including international sales, are around 70 million
iPods.

Have a nice day!

[Alexander Bell]

iPod: the Triumph of sophisticated User Interface design

iPod ? Audio as well as Video became extremely popular mostly due to its highly-sophisticated User Interface design, which implements Pseudo-Analog navigation Controls, simulating the analog wheel; this feature is the single biggest contributor to its success story.

In commercial Hi-Tech world, the product is just as good as its User Interface; this rule is equally applicable to the software development and hardware design.

Regards

Dr. Alexander Bell
Infosoft International Inc,
NY

[puterhead]

the data seems to be totally worthless to me

The figures by Nielson don't seem to add up to me. 15 million iPods in homes vs nearly 70 million units sold. I find it hard to believe that each of those homes has 4+ iPods to make the numbers even out. And the number of movies, TV shows etc that have been sold seem to indicate that allot more video watching is going on than they say there is.

[Bosambo]

Wrong numbers...

The 70 million you talk about is ALL iPods including the non-video units dating back to the very first iPod...which this research isn't about. The most popular iPods have been Mini's and Nanos, so the study isn't about all iPods just the video ones.

[tedk7]

Lamest article EVER

Video capacity is used a fraction of the time of audio capacity?
WOW THATS NEWS! You know many folks use their ipods while
walking, running, riding, working out, or partying, right?

This article isn't worth the server disk space it occupies, let alone
the bandwidth to pull it down and the time it took to read.