Apple Gives Birth to iVideo
After much speculation, Steve Jobs has confirmed the tech world's
worst-kept secret today: Apple is launching a video-enabled iPod so we
can watch videos and TV shows while commuting. For all the details,
check out Engadget. The iVideo - which Apple insists on calling the
iPod - features 2.5″ screen, and there are already 2,000 music videos
available for $1.99 while TV shows such as Desperate Housewives
can be bought for $2. So what does the iVideo mean to Apple? From a
brand perspective, it reinforces Apple's reputation as one of the
world's cutting-edge consumer electronics players - perhaps the Sony of
the 21st century if you want to use a little hyperbole. With the iPod,
Apple was smart and lucky, and it has aggressively unveiled new models
(Shuffle, Nano, Mini, etc.) to maintain its dominance and buzz.
Unfortunately, the iPod's success has also put Apple under huge
pressure to maintain its momentum. When the company posted fourth-quarter iPod sales
yesterday that failed to meet Wall St.'s lofty expectations (6.4
million units shipped vs. forecasts of 6.7 million to 8.5 million),
Apple
shares tumbled by more than 10% in after-hours trading. What this means
is analysts and
investors are likely looking for the iVideo to be a smash hit to
restore the lustre of Apple stock. If the iVideo fails to live up to
expectations, the market could quickly sour on Apple, and Jobs could
suffer a huge blow to his reputation. That said, the key to the
iVideo's success - aside from its features - will be content. If there
is enough quality content
that people will want to purchase and the iVideo works as well as the
iPod, the iVideo could change the way we watch videos, television
shows, etc. It all hinges on Jobs' ability to court the video world in
the same way he won over the music industry. The deal with ABC
involving Desperate Housewives is a promising sign. You can bet that
Apple's
fiscal first-quarter sales, which cover the holiday sales season, will
be
much anticipated to see if the hype surrounding the iVideo is grounded
in reality.
October 13th, 2005 at 9:13 am
Any idea if you can play back content on TVs or monitors? If so, is the real value of the iVideo content portability? Is this just a scaled down TiVo? If not, who really wants to watch TV on a 2.5″ screen?
October 14th, 2005 at 4:40 am
Astonishing idea that Apple could “fail” as a company while continuing to grow a new market (legal downloads) incredibly fast, own 89% of that legal market, be introducing a new highly desireable version of its award winning gadget and in doing so pioneer another new market, video and TV downloads. As astonishing as the analyst who said that consumers won't watch video on small screens for long peroids. Obviously he hasn't got kids who use Gameboys. As long as Apple keeps selling iPods and new derivations increasingly more powerful, and keeps putting up new content on iTunes, company revenues will look just fine and the market will eventually price them out fairly.