'Video iPods' Bring Seinfeld on Subway
Tue 3 August, 2004 18:10
By Andy Sullivan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Electronics makers are enticing consumers to take Seinfeld on the subway with portable video players that look like an iPod crossed with a digital camera.
Smaller than a Stephen King paperback thriller, these compact players have room for up to 80 hours of video -- that's all five seasons of "The Sopranos," the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, and six hours of Thighmaster infomercials.
Built-in video screens about 3.5 inches across provide a crisp picture for personal viewing, while output jacks allow them to be plugged into a TV screen for a more panoramic experience.
Users can record TV programs off the air, download movies from the Internet or copy vacation videos from their own camcorders.
Portable media players like the Archos ARCH.PA AV420 can also store and play back hundreds of hours of music and display thousands of digital photos. And, like a TiVo, the AV420 can be programmed to automatically record certain shows.
The AV420 lists for $549.95, while Thomson's TMS.PA RCA Lyra A/V Jukebox lists for $449.99 -- about $50 more than the most expensive version of Apple's iPod, which has sold more than 2 million units since it was introduced in 2001.
With manufacturers like Samsung 000830.K and Sanyo 1614.TW readying units of their own, Christmas shoppers could find store shelves filled with media players.
"We see the video player market as a natural progression for MP3," said Archos chief operating officer Brad Wallace. "We can do everything you can with an iPod."
Analysts are less bullish about the category.
"As a mass-market device, I think it's unlikely to succeed," said Paul O'Donovan, a principal analyst at Gartner Inc. "I think it's a very neat, very clever technology, but that doesn't guarantee a market."
The price is too high to attract all but the most avid gadget hounds when laptop computers and portable DVD players offer larger screens and fewer technical headaches, said Mike McGuire, another Gartner analyst.
U.S. consumers will buy 25 million portable MP3 players in 2008, but portable-video player sales will be closer to 2 million units that year, O'Donovan said.
Unlike music, video demands much more of a user's attention and can't be viewed while driving, exercising or walking down the street.
Delunte Lewis, a salesman at Best Buy BBY.N in Washington, said the Archos and RCA units have appealed to commuters who spend a fair amount of time on the train, but they haven't been particularly hot sellers.
Like elsewhere in the high-tech world, the products have broken down into two camps: Microsoft Corp.MSFT.O and the rest.
Apple Computer Inc. AAPL.O , which accounts for 55 percent of the MP3 market when measured by revenue, has said it has no plans to offer a video player.
Microsoft last year unveiled a software platform that would link personal media players closely with its Windows XP operating system.
Movies, music and other content could be automatically copied from a user's computer onto the mobile device while computers with a built-in TV tuner could record shows automatically and copy them to the mobile player.
Samsung, Sanyo and Creative CREAF.O have announced plans to release Microsoft-compatible players, and Amazon.com Inc. AMZN.O is taking pre-orders, though the products are not yet on the market.
Archos and RCA, which run on proprietary software, say their units can sync up with personal computers, or record video directly from TV units.
But that's a labor-intensive way to get content, said Josh Martin, an associate research analyst at IDC.
Paid download services like CinemaNow that allow users to download programs in minutes could encourage adoption if they're priced right, he said.
"If you could download as many episodes of Seinfeld as you want for $10 a month and keep them on your device, that's a pretty good value proposition," Martin said.
Video-download services have been slow to get off the ground due to piracy concerns. Overly restrictive copy-control measures and conflicting file formats could dampen enthusiasm, he said.
