I thought this was funny. When asked about the fact that Apple/Pixar CEO Steve Jobs thinks the portable video market is going nowhere, Bill Gates responded:
Ask kids in the back of a car on a two-hour trip, ‘Hey, would you like to have your videos there?’ My kids would,” Gates said. “I guess Steve’s kids just listen to Bach and Mozart. But mine, they want to watch ‘Finding Nemo.’ I don’t know who made that, but it’s really a neat movie.
Nice dig, Bill.
001 // Brian Ford // 09.03.2004 // 6:15 PM
I thought that was funny when I read it too. I think sometimes people forget that Steve and Bill are people who like each other enough to go out to eat together, and just happen to compete as businessmen too. I think they have a much healthier relationship with each other than most Mac/PC fans have with each other.
With that said, I think Steve was mainly referring to video on an iPod style device, not digital video in an in-car system, or even just a small TV. I think his comment was taken out of context, and when the context is taken into consideration, I think Steve is right.
002 // Jeff Croft // 09.03.2004 // 8:49 PM
I do think there’s a market for the portable, handheld video device, but I don’t think it’s one Apple should be in. Music is a mass market — everyone is into music, and everyone wants to take their music with them. Portable video, on the other hand, is a niche. There’s room for a few products in that market, but it will never be a mass market. While I have no doubt that Apple could create a killer “videoPod,” it would sell very few units, likley wouldn’t have the social/fashion/cool impact of the iPod, and probably wouldn’t help to promote other Apple products like the iPod has.
Of course, I could be proven wrong. But, I belive this will always be a niche market for heavy travlers and ubergeeks.
003 // Zelnox // 09.03.2004 // 10:36 PM
There is a market. In Japan, I heard broadband is optical! Imagine what we could do with that, eh? Already, there are ways to turn a PC into a pseudo-TiVo and catch missed episodes of popular TV shows.
Personally, I rather have an Internet connection to a satellite TV, and I believe there may be more and more people like that. It would be nice if we could just specifically watch the shows we want, without having to pay for the whole package (or wait for the DVD to come out). From there, to go portable or not is another issue. I view this more as a sort of video-download-on-demand.