Apple’s line of iPod MP3 players have dominated the market for a while now. But a preliminary study Nielson Media Research may indicate that by turning its device into a media player (iPod Video) for TV and movies as well as music, Apple may have overextended its reach.
A Reuters report I came across this morning said that data Nielsen has gathered so far show that “despite iPod's upgrade to video capabilities in October 2005, the device is still
mainly used as an audio device.”
That conclusion was reached from various findings, including this one: only 2.2 percent of items played on an iPod Video actually are videos.
“Even measured by duration of consumption, where 30- or 60-minute TV shows might seem to have a built-in advantage over three-minute songs, video comprises just 2 percent of total time spent using iPods or iTunes among iPod owners,” the Reuters article said.
Nielsen’s research also indicates that, of U.S. households owning at least one iPod, only 30 percent of those devices are video-enabled versions. To date, almost 70 million iPods have been sold; 15 million of those to people in the U.S.
“To a great extent, that number is driven almost entirely by people looking to play audio,” the Reuters reports quotes Neilsen Senior Vice President of Custom Research, Paul Lindstrom, as saying.
So what can be concluded from this? It could be that people just aren’t that interested in porting videos and TV shows around with them on an iPod. Or, it could be that people just haven’t figured out yet that they’re interested in using iPods for video.
The Reuters reports notes that, “To some degree, a higher volume of music is to be expected: Users could conceivably listen to a favorite song hundreds of times, while it is unlikely that a TV episode would be viewed more than a handful of times.”
Yet Reuters also points out that “the dominance of music even by the time-spent standard is somewhat more puzzling given the average video file's duration dwarfs that of an audio file.”
Nielsen, a VNU Group Company, claims its study is the first publicly available, independent look at how consumers are using iPod Video. The data, gathered Oct. 1-27, came from a panel of 400 iPod users.
What do you think—has iPod video not hit its stride yet, or is it simply an idea whose time will never come?
