Steve Jobs on Portable Video Players

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Steve Jobs on Portable Video Players

This David Pogue interview with Steve Jobs includes direct questions to Jobs about possible video iPods and Steve's three-pronged response for why they're not putting much energy into it.

His reasons are pretty flimsy, especially the assumption that people want to watch their favorite movie on a personal device. Sales of these devices have done well (I hear) in Tokyo for many of the same reasons iPods sell big in major cities here -- many people like to listen to recorded news such as NPR. If I still rode a subway everyday to work, I'd love to carry last night's Daily Show with me, and having it play on a 4" screen wouldn't hinder the experience as much as Jobs thinks. When he makes assumptions that people don't want to carry movies around with him he ignores that people might want to use them for video-out to a large TV and/or take advantage of the thousands of hours of weekly TV programming worth saving and watching at your leisure.

"Now, I'm not saying we’re not working on something like that," Mr. Jobs added. "Who knows what we’ve got in our labs?""
But from his comments, he made it clear that he and Mr. Gates were miles apart on their assessment of a technology's future. It wouldn’t be the first time

by Matt Haughey January 8, 2004 in News

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Apple is really missing a bet if they don't have something cooking in this department. By this fall TiVo's HMO will support exporting recordings to PCs and laptops (announced today), and hard drive-based portable video players are the logical next stop on this path. A TiVo/Apple partnership would be pretty sweet.

Posted by: Ernie Longmire at Jan 8, 2004 1:18:17 PM

I believe Steve Jobs has made it abundantly clear in the past that he doesn't like or watch TV, and Apple's product development strategy may well be skewed by this prejudice. After all, a "media hub" strategy without a PVR is simply absurd, which is why third-party companies like Elgato step up to fill the void with their EyeTV.

Posted by: Fazal Majid at Jan 8, 2004 2:25:00 PM

Yep Fazal, I agree.

I've probably seen the same interview you have and it came off as Jobs being elitist, saying how TV requires that people shut their brains off and he thought Apple products were about keeping your brain turned on or some such nonsense.

The EyeTV stuff looks pretty good, and fills the niche that Apple is ignoring.

Posted by: Matt Haughey at Jan 8, 2004 2:29:20 PM

Yeah Steve is adept at dissing stuff he isn't bothering to compete in yet. You can get stuff like the Lyra for $350 now with MPEG-4 recording and playback. Even when introduced the ArchosAVs were only $650 and now they are down to $500 or so.

The problem with sky-high audio-only monochrome iPods is that they are priced so high that if Apple were to introduce a video iPod now it would either be priced in the stratosphere or bring their iPod prices down 30-50%, eroding their margins.

They new Sony GigaBeat is only $400 (equivalent in Yen) but not available in US yet.

Spple specialize in getting "technology journalists" who know nothing about tech to regurgitate Steve's mantras as gospel.

Witness also the hoopla about "GarageBand" - this is nothing more than yet another Acid clone and I mean come one, people have been using low-end sequencers and arrangers since the Atari ST and AMiga back in the day.

Posted by: RealityDistortion at Jan 8, 2004 4:15:09 PM

You have it all wrong. The only company that can put out a PVP that we would want is somebody under the radar like Archos. A large company cannot create a device that bypasses DVD's DSS or anything that features the words digital, taping, encoding and transferring without incurring the wrath of the studios, TV and cable networks. Hence the convoluted DVI/DMS thing even for a 80" TV. Like TiVo's new DMS scheme to prevent you outputting to another medium.

All you have to do is look at Sony's Mp3's players to see their solution. You can either use the copy-protected WM format or Sony's "special" ACTRA (or something like that) Mp3 format that once you "re-rip" it - you cannot play it back on any other device. MS & WM-9 will be EXACTLY THAT and that is exactly what you'll get next year! Just like WM Mp3 players, you cannot tell unless you try to load it whether you can copy it over.

The music industry is different because the Mp3 genie is out of the bottle so no matter how hard MS tries to convert us to MW, that genie is not going back in the bottle. WE (the CONSUMER) controls that plus the process is easy. You can download a tiny, tiny utility to convert to Mp3 (or of course, download it illegally).

Personally, while there is a market for a portable player, I think 80% of the people who want to move video data back and forth and either rip DVD and convert to DiVx or another format already knows how to and can simply buy the Archos or some other off-the-wall brand from China/HK. Why ask for a crippled one from MS or some other big manufacturer?

Of course, I think all the DMS is crap. With DVD's priced at $5 and up and with car and portable DVD players already, 80% of the people are not going to want to spend 3 hours ripping a DVD into a copy protected WM-9 format that'll probably require you to insert the disc before it plays!

The problem is not Apple. If it weren't for Apple, we'd have no multimedia at all (how long did it take for the PC to make more than just a ping noise?)(Atari's used Apple's motorola chip). Look at the state of Mp3 players before Apple created one.

The problem is the that idiotic millennium digital copy law and the fact that Ivy League lawyers run the entertainment industry.

Posted by: jbelkin at Jan 10, 2004 11:00:20 PM

I think people's (including Steve Jobs) foresight is very limited when it comes to mobile video players. He's on record saying basically that "no-one wants to watch movies on tiny screens".

I don't want a video iPod so I can watch two hour long movies. That would be ridiculous (unless I could use video out to play them on a decent sized screen).

I want a video iPod so I can:

* learn things on the go - foreign languages,
cooking, dance steps, etc, etc..
* watch the latest movie trailers from the
Quicktime site (and show them to my friends
who don't have broadband)
* show funny videos from the net to my
friends e.g.
http://www.spiteyourface.com/spidey.html
* catch up with an episode of my favourite TV
show on the train
* catch up with the news - current events,
presidential debates, etc
* show WWDC keynote presentations to my
friends who don't have a computer
(or broadband) and who ask me "Why should I
buy a Mac/iPod?"

i.e. Lots of stuff with minimal to no copyright
issues, not very long, don't need a 23"
display, useful to have on the go

The thing that makes it particularly frustrating for me is that Apple's computers are especially geared towards letting people create their own videos! - iMovie, firewire, Quicktime, etc. and yet they don't have a way for people to carry this video around with them (unless they take their laptop with them everywhere they go). No-one needs to carry around 20+ Gb of music with them.

Kap

Posted by: Kapila Wimalaratne at Oct 8, 2004 9:55:45 AM

I think J. Belkin (above) hit the nail on the head. It's already been done extremely well by several manufacturers, with Archos definitely leading the way with their comprehensive range. CNet have summed it up in their recent review "No video iPod yet - try these instead" and have given credence to the variuos serious players so far. Of course people want Personal Media Players (PMPs) - not just MP3 players. A quick look at eBay shows how sought after these Gizmos are and how buyers are clamouring for the latest and greatest. The so-called small screens are fabulously sharp and very "watchable" for even those with ageing eyesight!! Add to that up to 100 GB HDD capacity in a pocketable unit that can display video, digital photos, play MP3s with better sound quality than iPod, have FM radio play/record capabilities, can act as a personal VCR to record your favourite shows (and play them back on a TV when you get to your destination) can back up your business files, uses "drag and drop" for moving from your PC and has a Flash Memory slot, then even a 60-year old non-nerd like me can see the attraction - and yes, I bought one. The iPod set the early benchmark in portable entertainment but unless Apple come out with something pretty revolutionary, soon, the iPod will be relegated to the status of another sadly missed opportunity.

Posted by: C Chantry at Jul 28, 2005 11:55:42 PM

Steve Jobs on Portable Video Players

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