Steve Jobs Comments On Hand-Held Video Players
New York Times
FROM THE DESK OF DAVID POGUE
The Future of Portable Video Players
By DAVID POGUE
Published: January 8, 2004
At this week?s Macworld Expo in San Francisco, I accompanied veteran Times tech reporter John Markoff to an interview with Steve Jobs, Apple?s chief visionary officer.
At his keynote address that morning, Jobs had unveiled new mini iPods, powerful new servers, and a new software suite (iPhoto 4, iMovie 4, iDVD 4, and a new music-making program called GarageBand).
But during our half-hour interview, Mr. Jobs answered questions on a wide range of other topics. At one point, Mr. Markoff asked Mr. Jobs about the prospects for a new consumer-electronics category: hand-held video players.
He noted that at the huge Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas (yet another trade show taking place this week), Bill Gates spoke of Microsoft?s initiative to design software for this soon-to-blossom category, and displayed early prototypes.
But Mr. Jobs outlined three reasons he doubted video players would ever approach the success of audio players - not even counting their high price ($700 and up) and the time-consuming difficulty of loading huge video files onto them. It was clear from his answers that Mr. Jobs has done quite a bit of thinking about the topic.
First, he said, on a video player, "there?s just no equivalent of headphones." That is, when you put on headphones and press Play on a music player, the results are spectacular-you get a very close equivalent to the concert-hall experience.
But watching video on a tiny three-inch hand-held screen is almost nothing like the experience of watching a movie in a theater or even on TV. It can?t approach the same realism or emotional impact.
Second, he pointed out that Hollywood has been a much better job of providing outlets for its wares than the recording industry. If you want to see a movie, you can see it in the theater, on DVD, on pay-per-view, on HBO, in flight, and so on.
On the other hand, Mr. Jobs pointed out that until recently, there was pretty much only one legal way to buy music: go to a store and bring home a CD or tape. The debut of legitimate download services like Apple?s iTunes store was a huge factor in the popularity of portable music players-but there just isn?t the same kind of pent-up demand for new movie-buying channels.
Finally, Mr. Jobs noted, people just don?t consume music and movies the same way. You might listen to a certain song dozens or hundreds of times in your lifetime.
But how many times in your life do you watch a movie? Most people probably wouldn?t watch even their favorite movies ten times in their lives, and therefore are don?t buy nearly as many movies as they do songs or CD?s.
(To which I would add: What makes music players so attractive is that you can listen as you work, as you drive, as you exercise. But watching a movie requires your full attention - and, by the way, for a much longer period of time.)
"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.
FROM THE DESK OF DAVID POGUE
The Future of Portable Video Players
By DAVID POGUE
Published: January 8, 2004
At this week?s Macworld Expo in San Francisco, I accompanied veteran Times tech reporter John Markoff to an interview with Steve Jobs, Apple?s chief visionary officer.
At his keynote address that morning, Jobs had unveiled new mini iPods, powerful new servers, and a new software suite (iPhoto 4, iMovie 4, iDVD 4, and a new music-making program called GarageBand).
But during our half-hour interview, Mr. Jobs answered questions on a wide range of other topics. At one point, Mr. Markoff asked Mr. Jobs about the prospects for a new consumer-electronics category: hand-held video players.
He noted that at the huge Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas (yet another trade show taking place this week), Bill Gates spoke of Microsoft?s initiative to design software for this soon-to-blossom category, and displayed early prototypes.
But Mr. Jobs outlined three reasons he doubted video players would ever approach the success of audio players - not even counting their high price ($700 and up) and the time-consuming difficulty of loading huge video files onto them. It was clear from his answers that Mr. Jobs has done quite a bit of thinking about the topic.
First, he said, on a video player, "there?s just no equivalent of headphones." That is, when you put on headphones and press Play on a music player, the results are spectacular-you get a very close equivalent to the concert-hall experience.
But watching video on a tiny three-inch hand-held screen is almost nothing like the experience of watching a movie in a theater or even on TV. It can?t approach the same realism or emotional impact.
Second, he pointed out that Hollywood has been a much better job of providing outlets for its wares than the recording industry. If you want to see a movie, you can see it in the theater, on DVD, on pay-per-view, on HBO, in flight, and so on.
On the other hand, Mr. Jobs pointed out that until recently, there was pretty much only one legal way to buy music: go to a store and bring home a CD or tape. The debut of legitimate download services like Apple?s iTunes store was a huge factor in the popularity of portable music players-but there just isn?t the same kind of pent-up demand for new movie-buying channels.
Finally, Mr. Jobs noted, people just don?t consume music and movies the same way. You might listen to a certain song dozens or hundreds of times in your lifetime.
But how many times in your life do you watch a movie? Most people probably wouldn?t watch even their favorite movies ten times in their lives, and therefore are don?t buy nearly as many movies as they do songs or CD?s.
(To which I would add: What makes music players so attractive is that you can listen as you work, as you drive, as you exercise. But watching a movie requires your full attention - and, by the way, for a much longer period of time.)
"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.
Comments
http://forums.appleinsider.com/showt...006#post525006
posted 01-08-2004 04:46 PM _
<Agents bust in, Matrix style>
"Oh *^$#"
<runs away from thread>