Apple expected to unveil iPod video player

Friday, October 07, 2005

Apple, the company who reveloutionized the way we listen to music, with its iPod music player, is anticipated to announce the release of an iPod video player at a news conference scheduled for October 12th.

Although Chief Executive Steve Jobs revels in leading prognosticators astray, Apple's entry into the fledgling market for portable video could broaden the appeal of watching movies and television shows on the go -- and potentially open new revenue streams for studios and networks.

We could very easily be 'podcasting' our favorite TV shows in the near future! A podcast is downloadable (usually mp3) content that is embedded into an XML feed. This platform could create major changes in how we watch videos, TV shows, or even movies and movie trailers.

But market analysts are quick to warn that in general, watching video is something we enjoy doing from the comfort of our couches, and the idea of video-on-the-go may not appeal to as many people as hoped.

An iPod video player has the potential be as influential to us as videocassette recorders were in the early 1980s, but whether or not it will take the video world by storm, is yet to be seen.

I can tell you that the image quality of the screen of my iPod Nano is better than most LCD displays I have seen, including my Minolta camera, so if this is any indicator, watching video-on-the-go on a small iPod video player screen might not be all that bad...