In an interview with The New York Times earlier this week, Apple CEO Steve Jobs acknowledged the about-face he made on his view of portable video. “Jobs said he was entering the video market as an experiment, but one that he felt he could not lose because the players will sell well on their music-playing features alone.”
Time magazine’s James Poniewozik has an interesting idea for the TV shows on iTunes. “Why not let people pay $1.99—or more—to watch a show the day before it airs? Sure, some folks might pony up for a glorified rerun. But how many Lost fanatics would gladly pay every week—essentially subscribing to a network show—for the chance to find out whether Michelle Rodriguez is evil, or why Daniel Dae-Kim is suddenly speaking English? A day late, a Survivor elimination is old news; a day early, it’s insider information.”
Motorola will release a podcast for its iTunes-enabled ROKR mobile phone next week that will feature legally-licensed music from big name music acts. The company describes the inclusion of such music as: “Marking another step towards full legitimacy of a format frequently branded ‘the new pirate radio.’”
Research firm IDC says global sales of digital music players are expected to increase to nearly 1 billion units a year in 2009. IDC forecasts sales of compressed audio players (everything from MP3 players to DVD devices) will reach 945.5 million units worth $145.4 billion in 2009, up from 224.9 units worth $46.7 billion in 2004. The portable flash player category is expected to grow to 124 million units in 2009 from 26.4 million in 2004.