Reams of text have been written by hundreds of experts (and not-so-experts) on the new iPod with video playback capability this past week. A few of their ideas are excellent.
Most of these better prognosticators are in agreement that Apple did a masterful job of getting into video with little effort, and without stealing sales from their cash-cow iPods. All they did was to add video playback capability to the new iPods, and begin offering music videos, TV programming and video podcasts on their new iTunes 6.0.
This, of course, is not at all what everyone expected. Nor does anyone, including Steve Jobs think that watching video on a 2.5 inch screen is a hot idea.
Therefore, after a few months, or even a year, of the new iPods flying off the shelves (or not – some are still skeptics), it will be time for Apple to get serious and introduce the real Video iPod to the world.
But perhaps it will not be an iPod at all.
And thus, the purpose of this blog – to talk about the Video Playback Device (VPD) that Apple has yet to introduce. Me? I have preferences about such a device and what its form factor will be (don’t we all?)
Such a VPD from Apple would need to have that special coolness factor that makes people grab their credit cards when they first see one.
But what kind of screen will it have? How big will the screen be? What capacity will the hard drive have? What input devices will it have?
One thing is for certain. the VPD will NOT have a QVGA resolution of 320 x 240 pixels. The resolution of the VPD must be at least VGA quality, and preferrably should be HD quality.
The one thing that stands in the way of this, of course, are the video providers. Once they see that Apple can sell their content without the fear of it being copied to DVD, perhaps more of them will come on board, and Apple will have a lock on most of the video programming that is available.
Already, Apple has gotten most of it right, providing one source for video, and one format for its playback, that is painless for the consumer.
But it has to be better than QVGA in order to be played back on a larger video screen.
What size screen? Well, consider a wide screen format of nine inches.
This is much bigger than Sony’s PSP, and that is good. Such a form factor is just big enough to have captioning that is readable on the screen. (Apple has still the need to address handicapped accessable content on the media players. But of course, CC is impossible on QVGA)
But I am not talking about a tablet configuration here, like the Sony PSP.
I would rather the new Apple VPD be a clamshell device, with a full size keyboard (but with fewer keys). A 55 key keyboard is an excellent solution, in preference to the common 76, 88, or 105 key keyboards that are in use now on Macs, PCs and laptops.
Such a VPD would definitely weigh less than two pounds, too.
This VPD would be about 8.5 by 4.5 in size. A typical keyboard therefore would be too small for touch typing. But a full sized keyboard with 55 keys would be perfect for such a configuration.
The VPD would need to have a hard drive to be useful. The micro hard drive of the iPod would be fine, although in a year or less, 160 GB hard drives would be on the market, and the bigger capacity the better when it comes to video.
Apple should stay away from memory cards or static solid state memory for the new VPD. Sony hamstrung their PSP with memory cards, and that is a clunky solution for them. (So was their decision to DRM their own movies.)
The only sore spot in any VPD that Apple produces is going to be battery life. I would settle for a much thicker video player from Apple if it had more battery life. Ten hours would be good, but that would take two batteries to make it work.
I know what you are thinking. My version of the VPD is like a mini iBook.
Right on! If Apple decides to do this video playback device right, they will not make it in the form factor of the iPod, but will make it a mini iBook, capable of playing high quality, high definition video, downloadable from iTunes.
The idea of providing another function for their VPD, say simple laptop functionality, would be brillaint for Apple to do. Who wants a device that is only good for one thing? Better to buy a cheap DVD player instead, if that is all you want.
Perhaps their VPD will run the much smaller and simpler iPod software interface, rather than the full blown OS X. Who can say?
But, think about it. A mini iBook is the perfect placement of a product, right between the bigger iPod and the 12″ iBook. Such a “Macintosh” would become an instant classic, would it not?
If Apple does this, people will marvel at their marketing expertise and design savvy. It would be the perfect size, and form factor, and perfectly priced between the $999 iBook and the $399 iPod, at $599.
Does anyone doubt that Apple would sell a million of these in the first few months of its introduction?
Best of all, I will finially get my perfect writer’s laptop, to boot! (grin)
Of course, time will tell if I am right about a real Video Playback Device from Apple, or not.
Somehow, I do not see such a thing having an iPod form factor. The screen is too small.
Comments?
Regards,
Roger Born
“Always drink upstream from the herd.”
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