Peter Nowak: Apple's video iPod hype is just that

So Apple has released a video iPod. Big deal.

It got loads of press, the company's stock shot up 9 per cent and some analysts touted it as the next big thing, saying it'll do for video content what the original iPod did for music.

But the device itself doesn't offer anything new or appealing, and the video distribution model it's touting is unlikely to succeed.

Sure, the iPod is the dominant music player, with 28 million units sold and about 75 per cent of the market. Sure, it has propelled Apple to new heights, with the company last week reporting its biggest quarterly revenue and profit yet. And sure, it has more or less single-handedly created a (legal) digital music download business.

But the fact is, video is very different. The company is a media darling and has in many ways benefited from a great deal of undeserved hype - especially with this announcement. Unfortunately, in the often navel-gazing, follow-the-leader world of journalism, it's hype that often feeds on itself.

Looking at the reality, there are plenty of portable devices that already play video - PDAs, cellphones and even the Sony PSP gaming platform, to name a few. None of these have really caught on for one simple fact: nobody wants to watch video on a tiny screen.

A quick look at what's going on in televisions is proof enough of that - screens are in fact going the other way in size, with several manufacturers now offering whopping 65-inch displays. And that's before we get into projection TVs.

The video iPod's 2.5-inch screen is comparatively measly. If you've ever watched video on a cellphone, you'll know it's eye strain waiting to happen.

While the video iPod and other devices offer the benefit of portability, the case has yet to be made for just how useful it is, or how much demand exists for it.

That's because the circumstances in which portable video is desirable are few and far between. The bus ride to work is often too short to watch a full TV episode or movie. Perhaps a longer voyage, such as a plane or long-distance bus journey, is more suitable - but who takes such trips often enough to justify the cost of a video iPod (US$299 [$428] to US$399)? Maybe portable video is desirable for the beach or the bach, but then again, most people go to such places to escape every-day preoccupations, such as television.

Video just isn't the same as music - it requires more time and attention, and neither factor jibes well with portability.

The bigger strike against the video iPod, however, is its distribution model. Apple took the opportunity at last week's unveiling to also announce an alliance with Disney, which would offer television shows for download. The studio would be making available episodes of several shows, including Desperate Housewives and Lost, for download on Apple's iTunes store the day after airing, for US$1.99.

Kudos should go to Disney for at least trying to think outside the box to pre-empt the same piracy problems that have plagued the music industry. But it's an idea that's unlikely to fly, thanks to a good old-fashioned, low-tech alternative - the trusty VCR.

Disney is plugging the model as a way for viewers to catch up on missed episodes of their favourite shows, but that's exactly why the VCR was invented. And it's free.

Moving forward a few decades in technology, we've also got DVD and hard drive recorders that serve the same purpose, only better. A real fan of Desperate Housewives will have their Tivo set to record it every week - to watch on a big screen, again for free. Apple is therefore asking viewers to pay for free television that will take hours to download onto a computer, just so they can have the privilege of watching it on a tiny screen. Wouldn't it be far easier just to set the VCR?

Never mind that all of this is a pipe dream in New Zealand. First off, we don't even have the iTunes store. And given the current internet speeds offered by service providers, downloading video of any size would surely prove an exercise in frustration.

What would have been truly revolutionary is if Apple had allowed the video iPod to record directly from the television. But that would have cut out the potential of additional iTunes revenue for the company, so of course it was a no-go.

Some sort of wireless download capability also would have been nice, although as any cellular phone provider will attest to, wireless data transmission is still too slow and expensive to provide full video download. This may change with WiMax on the horizon and perhaps future iterations of the video iPod will incorporate such a capability, but for the time being it's simply not realistic.

In the end, the video iPod is not something that is tremendously useful today, and ultimately doesn't move the television and movie industries forward in any measurable way.

So what was all the hype about again?