p2p news / p2pnet: The A in the USA isn’t for America. It’s for Apple

Steve Jobs’ mainstream media, the people who made him and his iPod what they are today, have ordained that people will pay between $300 and $400 for the opportunity to buy hundreds of thousands of music player/tv combo units which show $2-a-shot video clips and soaps on a teeny weeny screen.

And they could be right, although it’ll be a little tougher than usual for Steve and his main man, marketing director Philip Schiller, to get all the punters nicely queuing, credit cards at the ready. And that’s because many and various interests, all of them just as venal as Steve, are lining up with their hands out.

Hollywood Holds Its Breath - BusinessWeek. Tuning out the world has never been easier - Hollywood Reporter. Video iPod, At Long Last – InformationWeek. He’s up to his ears in iPod - Boston Globe.

The fact that tiny TVs have been around for decades doesn’t seem important.

With a music portable, you can still do what you’re doing and enjoy the sounds. With a TV portable, you have to stand still, although although those folks driving around with cellphones in their ears and DVD screens on their SUV consoles, may suggest otherwise.

But if Tiny TV is what you want, you can get a handheld Casio for $101, or a second-hand one for $65. If you want to be really cool, you can get a wrist-watch TV for $200. And you get to see the complete show. AND it doesn’t cost you $2 a throw. Nor do you have to throw the iPiod, for which you’ve already paid hundreds of dollars, away.

Verrone Patric, president of the Writers Guild of America, says he’s “thrilled” by the idea of the video Ipod, “I also want to make sure we are paid appropriately.”

And in a joint statement, AFTRA, DGA, SAG, WGAE and, WGAw say, “We have not yet heard from the responsible employers of our members, but we look forward to a dialogue that ensures that our members are properly compensated for this exploitation of their work.”

There are technical considerations, as BusinessWeek Online points out, ie, “”Using Apple’s updated iTunes software, customers can download an hourlong TV show in 20 minutes. At that rate, a full-length movie would take half an hour. And analysts say it would consume half a gigabyte of storage space - or five gigabytes-plus, if the movie was shot in a high-definition version. As a result, experts say online movies will remain a tiny niche until U.S. consumers get speedier broadband connections, slicker home networks, and beefier hard drives.”

However, the lamescream media have spoken, the punters are listening and the entertainment cartels smell money. So short battery life, storage problems and the DMCA notwithstanding, it’s all over bar the talking …

… or is it?

Stay tuned.

Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net

See:-
video Ipod - Apple launches video iPod, October 12, 2005
BusinessWeek Online - Hollywood Holds Its Breath , week of October 24, 2005
DMCA notwithstanding - Apple’s new video iPod, October 14, 2005

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 18th, 2005 at 1:04 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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