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iPod's latest feature is turning heads
Merce_17@yahoo.com
It's 3 p.m. on a spring Wednesday and Mike Lazar, a senior at New York University, is walking to his next class. Like most of his peers on the street, he is listening to his iPod. But unlike the others, Lazar keeps his gaze focused intensely on his little device, only taking a quick peek up from his screen every few minutes when he can withstand it. His iPod has transported him to another place: the land of the Desperate Housewives.
"If I miss a show, I download it and watch it on my iPod," said Lazar.
The newest version of iPod, which allows users to watch and listen to downloaded TV shows, has quickly gained popularity. Successful shows like Desperate Housewives and Lost are gaining even more exposure because of TV iPods. NBC says ratings for Desperate Housewives are up 7 percent as of January, as a result of iPod downloads. The Office, also available on iTunes, delivered a 5.1, its highest ratings ever.
Twelve NBC Universal shows have been available since NBC struck a deal with Apple in early December. Now people can watch TV at any given moment with this $299 device. The virtual shelves of the iTunes Music Store feature music videos, short films, independent films and TV shows like Monk, Law and Order and The Daily Show for $1.99 an episode. When NBC first announced its deal with Apple on December 6, Apple had sold 3 million video downloads since debuting the video iPod in November. In January, at San Francisco's annual Macintosh conference, MacWorld, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced that Apple had sold 8 million videos. (The company will not disclose how many of the video-capable iPods it has sold.)
Users are attracted to the video iPod's small, convenient package. "I love that I can watch it anywhere," says Lazar. "But I don't go out of my way to watch my downloads obsessively." For him, that usually means watching on the Chinatown bus to Boston, on the subway -- and occasionally between classes. "I have to see this episode today," he grinned.
Lazar is far from the only iPod user swept into the allure of the iPod's capabilities and constant new products releases. According to Kate Cerigo, an iPod seller at Tekserve, a major Apple dealer in Manhattan, "We've had a surge of people buying the video kind just because it is the latest one."
Cerigo adds that people come in and often buy more than one iPod-finding a different purpose for each one. "Most people like the Shuffle for exercise because it's tiny, and a lot of young people like the Nano, which replaced the mini -- because it's also smaller," said Cerigo.
David Rey, a filmmaker shopping at Tekserve, is one who finds many uses for his iPods. "I use my Shuffle for exercise. When I got the video one I didn't see the point until I realized I can watch The Daily Show and South Park on the subway. That's pretty cool."
Apple has has tried to stay ahead of the demands of its 40 million iPod users, usually releasing upgraded iPods with new features -- models that are smaller, thinner and more convenient than their predecessors -- twice a year. Diana De La Pava, Tekserve's manager, observed, "Many people come in and are afraid that once they buy one there will be a new, better one that comes out."
While millions of consumers find themselves seduced by the iPod's proliferation of features, others find themselves more and more turned off by them. "Now that the very concept of watching TV on an iPod, exists, it furthers my cause not to get one in the first place," said Joel Manaloto, 32, a New York City accountant and independent film casting director who does not own an iPod. "I like my CD collection and am not about to transfer them to an iPod just to keep up with iPod's ideas."
Even for die-hard iPod users, the video feature can be hard to get used to. "The quality of the video iPod is amazing," said Betsy Kagen, a junior at NYU, "But I hardly ever use it," adding that it takes up a lot of memory on the iPod. She, too watches Desparate Housewives on it, but usually only uses it if she has to wait for something, like a class. "I still think people would rather watch on a big screen, and the iPod is for convenience," she says.
According to David Ackerman, a technology and entertainment analyst for Digital Life America, a research firm that evaluates consumers' use of modern technology, Americans will be seeing more and more mini-screens whether they like it or not.
"The strategy is to create smaller, better screens that hold more content," he said.
He added that the current youth generation will know no limits of technology. "People buying these devices are so accustomed to using the computer for entertainment, their appetite has been whetted for more.
"However," Ackerman reflected, "When I see kids in cars listening to separate iPods I wonder, what happened to looking out the window?"
With his new video iPod, New Yorker Mike Lazar sometimes watches Desperate Housewives while walking down the street.
Photo by Meredith Napolitano