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SHIFT: No one wants portable movies
Each week Adam Frucci takes a closer look at the latest gadget buzz in his column, Shift.
Image by Matt Krueger
Apple is set to start offering full-length movies for download through iTunes for viewing on iPods and Sprint is "renting" movies for people to watch on their cell phones. With these developments, one might think that there's a small-screen revolution going on and that consumers are clamoring for ways to watch movies on the go. But are they? Do people really want to watch a two-hour movie on a 1.5-inch screen? I really doubt it. Gadget makers and content distributors need to reexamine how people watch videos on the go and cater more towards the realities of the market rather than wishing for a world in which people will be excited to drop $10 on a low-quality version of a movie they can watch only on a tiny screen.
People like watching movies in traditional places: namely, the theater or the living room. Pay-to-download sites such as Vongo haven't really caught on, and for good reason. While watching a movie on your laptop once in a while is fine, it really doesn't compete to sitting on the couch and watching it on TV. If people don't want to pay to watch a movie on their laptops, why would they pay to watch them on their iPods? First of all, the quality is just not up to snuff. Those tiny screens are okay for watching music videos, but to stare at one for 2 hours is far from a comfortable viewing experience. Secondly, you need to think about what situations people will be in when they're going to watch a movie on their phone. It seems like the most logical place to watch a movie on the go would be while traveling, as there really aren't too many other times that you'll be stationary for a couple of hours and want to be distracted. However, laptops are a much better way to watch movies on the go, and if you are going to pay for your movies wouldn't you rather have a DVD you can use on a laptop or at home than a digital copy that's trapped on your phone or iPod?
If you look at what videos are popular on the Internet, you'll see that shorter is better. Sites like YouTube are totally full of videos that clock in well under the 5-minute mark, and these are the types of videos that people would be more interested in watching on portable devices. After all, if you're in a waiting room or on the subway and want to watch something, you don't want to get sucked into Rumor Has It, you want something that will fit into the time you have. There are already applications out there to put YouTube videos on your iPod, and no rental or purchase fee is required. iTube for Windows and PodTube for OS X both do the work of converting and transferring YouTube videos to your iPod, and this is the perfect solution to people who want to have free, short video content for their portables.
Downloading movies is something that will catch on eventually, but it has to be done in the right way. The rumored Netflix set-top box is exactly the type of thing that consumers will embrace. It gives them the luxury of downloading something without leaving their house and lets them watch movies where they want to — the living room. Companies such as Apple and Sprint want to get in on movie downloading, but portables are just not the venue that will make it catch on. Watching videos on your phone or music player is a novelty, one that demands content that's somewhat disposable as well. Until that happens, don't expect to see legions of people watching Little Man on their phones anytime soon.
By sfmobius at 1:53 AM ON 09/08/06
I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who sees it this way. I'd never spend 2 hours watching a movie on such a tiny screen.
By ahipdude1 at 4:16 AM ON 09/14/06
I spent over $2000 so I could watch my movies on a large screen TV. Why in the world would I want to spend a dime to watch a movie on a screen that is the height of two nickels?
By TreLore at 5:28 AM ON 09/14/06
Hello
Where the hell do you get that Idea? I own a PSP and I have a lot of friends who have one and have Ipods and cellphones. All of them love to download movies and to watch them on the go. I love watching movies on my PSP. PSP UMD sales and the number of people downloading movies to their cellphones prove your wrong on this statement. This is a brilliant Idea not a stupid one.
TreLore
By sgeo1 at 6:46 AM ON 09/14/06
Personally, I CANNOT fathom watching anything more than a mini-sized clip on a PSP or cell.
So Trelore, respectfully, what is good about watching stuff like that?? I am curious, cause I bet like 80% of the respondents here will agree w/ me...
By rushrtb2112 at 7:35 AM ON 09/14/06
Granted watching movies on a small screen is a small market. I don't think Apple or Sprint are wrong for selling downloadable movies. It will give a downloader much more flexibility on how and where they watch the movie (portable, rip to disc, laptop, desktop, etc.). Plus Adam failed to mention that Apple is bringing out a settop style box that will allow users to stream movies (rumored to allow HD) to a TV.
By amkochman at 10:32 AM ON 09/14/06
Whoa there. I also have a PSP, and its great for playing games on my commute, and storing a limited number of songs and clips, but movies? Give me a break, the screen is tiny! Why in the world would I want to subject myself to watching a movie on such a small screen? The PSP and iPod are great, and its neat that they have this functionality, but this will never take off as a dominant form of media beyond the very young. I'm 23, so its not like an "old timer" opining about the "young whipper snappers". The only legitimate reason to WANT to watch a movie on a PSP or iPod is because your DVD player broke, you're commuting, or you're on vacation.
By amphetameme at 11:37 AM ON 09/14/06
A few things to think about:
A) I think you probably know that one of the biggest markets Jobs & Apple is trying to reach is kids. They have more money to spend on this kind of thing than anyone else. Kids will spend more money on music and movies than any other demographic. So as you mentioned, beyond the young, maybe not so much -- they might not get it...
B) Unless you're like me, who has to spend hours on the metro/subway every day -- or actually doesn't mind watching a movie for a short time while I'm working out, instead of sitting on my *** on a couch.
C) or like me again, wanting to be outside more often than not, and being able to watch a movie or TV show for a few minutes in a crowded cafe.
I don't care at this point how big the screen is (although I'd prefer a larger horizontal screen than the 2.5 they use now, fullscreen iPod I'm waiting for you!) I do use a regular video iPod to really enjoy the movies and TV shows I do have on there. So basically you might not get it, but many others in a crowded metro area, or folks who prefer timeshifting options just might. And you know what? Who cares if you dont want to watch the entire movie all at once? That's why it's on my iPod.
By pwillows at 2:37 PM ON 09/14/06
I suppose if I were tucked away in a Russian gulag a 2 inch screen might look pretty nice.
But I'm not, so until something more intelligent comes along I will continue to use my portable DVD player with its 8 inch display and virtual surround sound.
By gypsie516 at 4:21 PM ON 09/14/06
If you are going to spend the money, why not go all the way and get an I-Theater from IGlasses [see http://www.i-glassesstore.com/itheater-ipod.html]. These are designed to plug into an Ipod and give you the viewing pleasure of a 50-inch screen.
This, overall, takes up less space than a portable DVD player.
By grogtheslayer at 10:47 AM ON 09/15/06
First, I want to address TreLore's comment regarding PSP UMD sales, which are being touted as proof that Frucci is misguided in his comments. While an average sales range for a UMD film is about 50,000 copies, and double that for a "hot" title, the fact is that UMD movie sales are *well below studio expectations*, and so Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Paramount Home Entertainment, and Warner Home Video are doing huge cutbacks. Holy smokes, SONY Pictures is cutting back productions for SONY's PSP?!? Say it ain't so, Krusty! While things looked somewhat hopeful back in 2005, the fact is that UMD sales took a major downturn as the year went on and the trend continued in 2006. WHV, which only began releasing UMD titles in November 2005, pulled six planned PSP titles (including Goodfellas) from its slate of releases previously set for an April-June rollout. Comedies still outsell other genres, so distributors are cutting back on particular types of films as well as the overall numbers. Fox's top-selling UMD release is Napoleon Dynamite, and Paramount's biggest UMD titles have been *television* comedies such as "Chappelle's Show Vol. 1" and "Beavis & Butthead - The Mike Judge Collection: Vol. 1." Gee, those aren't exactly feature-length films being watched.
This provides a useful segue for me to address an important point that I think Frucci is failing to take into account, and I'm basing this on several years of polling my film students about their movie-going and movie-watching habits. As amphetameme point out in a posting, thanks to the time-shifting qualities of home video in general, a lot of people just simply aren't in front of a television for the complete run of a film. It gets watched in chunks, or incompletely, or only for favorite scenes. I suspect that you might find less people watching an entire film start to finish on their PSPs and more people watching their favorite scenes from UMD titles like Underworld or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Taking the target demographics into account along with their viewing habits is pretty important here.
(Personally, I own a large screen television and prefer watching films writ large against the world, but I'm also not the target audience for this type of product.)
(Also, with regard to the UMD sales numbers, since users can now copy films from DVDs onto a memory chip the PSPs can read, this may also be affecting sales numbers.)
By sunnyjay at 11:32 AM ON 12/28/06
I agree, seems just another case of "just because you can, doesn't mean you should" I think that must be how the internet gets so overloaded with mechanisms that do the same thing. I have about 5-6 different areas I could 'click on' just to get my email, on one web page, when I only need one! I don't even like listening to music on headphones, so other than a compact storage device, ipods, & mp3s are of no interest to me. Just examples of marketing to insecure folks who need to appear 'hip,slick, & cool'.
By CCrabb at 2:41 PM ON 12/28/06
I think the ipod is great for road trips. Instead of having to pack games, mp3 players, cd players, a portable DVD player and movies on long road trips, you pack one thing... the ipod. You can listen to music, view photos, watch movies and clips and play games in one small piece of luggage! Love it. However, I do not download movies for it. I usually use a movie I already purchased that I watch on my giant HDTV. Most DVD's can be converted to your ipod so you still own the movie and don't have to buy it twice. But you have to have the right software to do this. Also, my daughter likes to take hers to school to watch movies or listen to music after school while in after school care. It beats having to sit and read in her opinion. So, maybe these things are more geared towards the younger generation.
By ah-clem at 3:11 PM ON 12/28/06
I think CCrabb is on the right track. I wouldn't pay $10 to have an iPod version of the latest movie, but I can see spending $10-20 on a full-def movie and converting to watch on iPod if I was going to be stuck sitting around. Since most people don't have the knowledge/software to do the conversion I see an "iPod version" as being an attractive DVD extra.
By DarrianAshoka at 2:18 PM ON 01/01/07
Beside the other good comments made here and in this article, my biggest issue with watching more than a short music video on an iPod or especially a cell phone is the power consumption of the back-light. Unless it is sitting in a charging dock, it drains the battery very quickly. If you can sit there with your unit in a charging dock, what is the point? You would want to then watch it on your PC or TV.
I have found that iPods are only usable for playing music, and cell phones are not even good for that, unless you do not mind having your call dropped mid sentence because of a dead battery. My LG VX8300 music player gets activated frequently from steady pressure in my pocket, and I have to scramble to shut it off to keep the battery from getting drained, and I have the larger extended run-time battery in it.
I spent about a hundred hours converting my stash of sexy photos to look good on my iPod when I first got it, but now I rarely use it that way because of the swift battery drain on the unit. At least most laptops have a much longer life battery pack in them, but they do tend to get a bit hot with extended use like that.
Heck, I have noticed that my iPod while off will drain overnight just sitting in my cold car this time of year. I have to remember to bring it in each night to sleep in it's nice comfy little bed next to my PC, dreaming of the day they develop a better power source to fill it's tiny little belly.
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