Video isn’t mobile
Hell froze over again and – wham – here’s the video ipod in all its boxy glory. I don’t think it’s a good idea, though. Sure, tossing in a new feature won’t stop people from buying the best portable audio player in the world, a hallmark of modern design and style icon of our days, but i don’t think that people will actually use the video feature much (update: i should probably clarify that i’m talking about video on-the-go – hooking up your ipod to your tv seems perfectly reasonable to me).
In my humble opinion one of the keys to successful design for mobility is to keep in mind that mobile devices shouldn’t take you out of context, they should be non-immersive in usage. Or as Janne Jalkanen puts it: mobile devices are background devices, whereas laptops are foreground devices (via Russell Beattie). Interestingly this seems to be something the cellphone industry really gets and the personal computer industry doesn’t. Of course there are those who argue that ipods don’t qualify as mobile but merely as portable in the first place, simply because they haven’t achieved the same “bring-along-everywhere” status as cellphones…
While i’m ranting about apple’s new ipods i might as well chime in on the new imacs: integrated camera – it’s about time, hopefully this’ll make it into displays and laptops in the foreseeable future. No integrated dial-up modem – i was expecting to see this happen sooner than later, i wonder if their laptops are next. Front row – interesting to see the imac take center-stage as apple’s media center where everyone expected the mac mini to take on this roll six months ago. Kinda bold to create a living room media hub without integrated tv-tuner – either they’re really confident in their itunes video store or Steve Jobs really hates tv.
One thing to consider on the background device argument, is the fact that the new video iPod has a jack that allows it to pipe its signal to a television (much as it can pipe music into your speaker system). What this really does is make it a portable video player. And with the deal with ABC, we’re not just talking about home videos — we’re talking television shows or downloaded movies (both legal and illegal, for now). The one movie file it doesn’t support are those ripped from DVDs. However, I suspect a crack will appear before long that circumvents that problem.
Comment by Kristopher White on Oct. 13th, 2005, at 1:49 #
Excellent points, the ability to hook up your ipod to your tv is really nice and i’m excited about the itunes video store, it’ll hopefully bring moronic dvd release cycles to an end eventually and the pricing seems very fair. I’m just a tad disappointed that the only video content available now that i’m interested in (namely lost and desperate housewives) is only available in the united states but i believe it’s just a matter of time until these regional borders go away.
As you say the new ipod is a nice portable video player, i just doubt that mobile video is such a killer application as many seem to believe these days.
Comment by christoph on Oct. 13th, 2005, at 2:02 #
I love music but as cool and amazing a device as the iPod is, I would not have bought one. What i did buy right away was Microsoft’s Media Center becuase I loved the all in one intergration of the device, music, pictures and my TV shows. I had been waiting for video iPod beacuse I wanted take the shows that I record on my Media Center and be able to watch them where ever I was. I am really disappointed with the video iPod, limited video format capability..MPEG 4 and quick time and worst of all small screen. I expected more from Apple.
My friend who is a MAC fan could not get over how cool my Microsoft Media Center is..and I love this “The media center is something like what Apple would have designed” he siad when he saw the machine. Perhaps Apple needs to take a lesson from Microsoft on this.
Comment by Arun on Oct. 14th, 2005, at 1:47 #
Well said. Another question is: do you think people will be likely to download $1.99 TV shows when they already pay $50/month for a cable subscription? That aspect of the service seems the shakiest to me, especially considering people are getting used to free video on demand.
Comment by Double-oh Steven on Oct. 18th, 2005, at 19:34 #