tech industry
10/11/2005, 11:50am, EDT
Tuesday, October 11th
PocketDish video player beats Apple off the line
EchoStar today introduced a handheld video player just one day before Apple is expected to release its video-capable iPod. The new players go on sale today, are offered in three screen sizes from two to seven inches across, and cost between $330 and $600. PocketDish users plug the gadgets into EchoStar satellite receivers, download video content into their digital video recorder, and transfer it to the handheld unit in five minutes, according to a report from Bloomberg News. Echostar's new video player can also record shows from other company's cable or satellite boxes, according to the report. The smallest video player stores up to 20 hours of high-resolution content, while the largest model holds up to 40 hours of video. Craig Moffett, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein and Co. in New York said PocketDish is unlikely to lure customers away from purchasing a video iPod when that product is offered. "I don't think it's a transformational product," Moffett said, referring to the PocketDish. "It has the feeling of a solution in search of a problem," Moffett noted.
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MacNN has no special information about what Apple will release tomorrow, and basing the premise of this story on unfounded rumors about a hypothetical product that makes very little sense for Apple is irresponsible, sensationalistic, and insulting.
That's the stupidest analogy ever! Ask me to prove gravity to you, and I hold something up in the air and drop it. You have visual evidence and mathematical calculations to back it up.
I as you to prove the vide iPod. What the are you gonna do? Point me to a rumor site? can you visually prove it to me and have "proven" specs to back it up?
There is a difference been highly probable and proven fact. You'll learn that next year in school.
So if the Dish website is any indication, this is a sophmoric attempt to produce a product that may have a reason to be built, but doesn't give us a reason to buy it.
Why would Apple introduce *another* iPod on the heels of the wildly successful nano, and risk cannibalizing sales, and lessening the impact of the nano over the coming holiday season? It would be stupid to release a video iPod, without any content to put on it -- and it would be stupid to release a video iPod, along with a content solution at the same time, as there would be no build-up demand then.
This, in essence, reduces the chances for a video pod to practically nil.
Now, what would make far more sense before a vPod is released, is for Apple to provide a service or product that offers content, and is highly desirable - and I'm not talking movies (or videos). Most analysts predicting movies and videos are missing the most obvious target - but then again, they often do.