Make Way, Mainstream TV: Mobile Video is on the Move

By Soctt Kirsner

The biggest problem Todd Boes has with his new video iPod is prying it away from his two oldest kids, ages 4 and 6.

"They'd much rather take the iPod up to their room and watch it than watch the big TV," says Boes, vice president of marketing at Maven Networks, a Cambridge start-up. They're partial to the Disney Channel hits "That's So Raven" and "The Suite Life of Zach and Cody," available from Apple's online store for $1.99 an episode.

Boes -- when he can get his hands on the device -- watches episodes of "Lost," music videos from U2 and the Beastie Boys, and the odd video podcast, a low-budget snippet of personal video.

But as holiday shoppers evaluate Apple's new $299 video-capable iPod, the question hanging over the entertainment industry is whether the iPod can do for motion pictures what it did for music. Does its arrival signal a transition from the era of scheduled TV, DVDs, and videotapes to the age of Internet downloads?

Apple announced earlier this month that its customers have purchased (or downloaded for free) more than three million videos from its iTunes Music Store since October, when videos were added to the inventory. While the company hasn't divulged how many video-capable iPods, with their matchbook-sized screens, it has sold, the device's arrival has ignited real curiosity -- and debate -- in the worlds of TV, film, and especially home-grown video.

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Monty Solomon
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