ON APPLE'S NEW VIDEO iPOD AND ME

"AND THEN THERE WAS VIDEO..."

My first reaction on seeing Apple's long-rumored, anticipated, and awaited video iPod being announced today was instinctual...the same one as expressed by Fred Wilson, and likely millions of Apple fans.

Open a new tab for the Apple Store, go to the video iPod page, DO NOT wait to read anything about the product (features, etc.), and just click that infernal "One-click" button to order yet another iPod that I'll order and minimally use. 

I would have done it too, if the product page didn't present me with a choice:  white or black...just like the Nano...think...quickly...black oooorrrrr, white...which is it?

In the few seconds it took to think through the pros and cons of each color and fighting the temptation to do what I did with the Nano, when presented with a similar choice (I ordered both and one extra, rationalising that I'd gift for my wife and friends), I stopped mid-click.

Wait, I said...what will you actually use this for?  What types of videos is Apple making available for this gadget?  How much will they cost to buy/download?  All the rational questions that a mainstream consumer without a gadget addiction would consider and ask.

So I checked into all that.  I found that:

1. There'll be less than 2000 videos available at launch, including some from Pixar (that must have been hard to negotiate).
2. There'll be some ABC shows available for immediate download like Lost and Desperate Housewives and three others I'd never heard of...I'm not a fan of any of them.  The pricing is OK for all of this though, at $2.00 a pop.
3. There'll be video movie trailers to watch on the vidpod (my term)...whoop de doo.
4. But I can't burn any of the videos to a DVD or a CD.
5. And I'll have to download and install iTunes 6.0 on all my machines to play videos...just a few days after I'd downloaded iTunes 5.0.
6. That's it...no WiFI...no miniature keyboard a la a Blackberry...nothing else.  Just a bigger screen, from 2" to 2.5".
7. Oh, and all the other nice-to-have accessories like audio and video cables, along with a dock, are optional...just like for the Nano.

And that's when it hit me...iPod fatigue, combined with the feeling that there's nothing really cool to do with the new vidpod.  The whole thought of dealing with yet another iPod, video or not, didn't seem as enticing anymore.  This is just another iPod, with a slightly bigger screen, I said to myself. 

And my finger came off the "One-Click' button...slowly.  And I closed the Apple store window reluctantly.  And got up from the desk and the computer.  For now anyway.