Airlines may integrate iPod, iTunes

This blows my mind a little bit; some airlines have had on-demand video for a while. Why I would plug my ipod in, then pay money to watch a video on my 2 inch screen instead of pay no money to watch a video on the 7 inch screen that's in front of my face anyway I'm not sure. I suppose you'd have more choice, and Apple could make money on it. But does this mean airline entertainment will only be available to those with iPods in the future?

This was leaked five months ago, December last year. Mobile Information, Communications and Entertainment (www.mice.tv). It seems they figured out a clever way of bridging the 'last meter' between iTunes and the iPod inflight, which I expect is backed by Apple, part of a wider TICE strategy emanating beyond the radar of the old school IFE providers. According to industry insiders it's a robust solution with no hardware retrofit, no broadband wifi bottlenecks, no satellite dish strapped on top, so could become ubiquitous almost instantly. It seems the end-goal for IFE is not PC-anywhere thinking but world-leading content on-tap for the consumer, in-home, in-car, in-lounge as well as in-flight. Thales and Panasonic would do well to explore M&A opportunities in the wider TICE market because there's more to IFE than connectivity (and Connexion). Once consumers have the reigns, all bets are off.