What are the numbers for video iPod use?

January 3, 2006 8:21 AM

What are people watching on their Video iPods and other devices that use downloaded video content? How many people are buying them? What are the stats on what people are buying (PSP vs. Archos vs. iPod, etc.)

I'm looking for information about video players specifically. Sure, the iTunes store tells me what people are legally downloading from them, but I assume that the majority of items downloaded aren't legal. Any stats are helpful. I've seen Apple's financial statement, but that's not terribly useful. Any info that is region specific, especially concerning Europe would be great.

posted by k8t to technology (6 comments total)

I bought a new iPod yesterday. I'm currently playing with Videora and ffmpeg to get the best encoding settings. I've got a Digital TV card in my PC (I'm in Europe), and I hope, within a few days, to have my PC set up to record TV programs, encode them, and place them on the iPod automatically.

It's complicated, but it will work. I've been doing a similar thing with radio programmes for a couple of years now.
posted by ascullion at 9:01 AM on January 3, 2006

If you can wait a few days for Steve Jobs to give his keynote address in SF, I'm sure he'll mention what the sales were of the video iPod over the holiday quarter.

He usually likes to show pie charts with market share numbers, I'd expect one related to video players this time around.
posted by Wild_Eep at 9:28 AM on January 3, 2006

When I answered, I thought you were looking for personal anecdotes. Sorry if not.
posted by ascullion at 9:43 AM on January 3, 2006

I have an iRiver H340 and I mostly have cartoons on it - about 30-40 classic Warner Bros cartoons and every Invader Zim episode. This is mostly because I use it to entertain my 6 year old during long journeys on public transport. Most of what I watch is legal copies from DVD or (in the instance of the WB cartoons) naughty illegal downloads because I can't buy them on DVD.

As per ascullion - above is personal anecdote - sorry if that's not what you're after.
posted by longbaugh at 9:53 AM on January 3, 2006

Looking for official stats, thanks tho.
posted by k8t at 10:51 AM on January 3, 2006

What are people watching on their Video iPods and other devices that use downloaded video content?
You'll be hard-pressed to find accurate stats on this. I assume the hardcore techies are either a) downloading movies through p2p channels in iPod-ready format (H.264) or converting it themselves or b) converting their existing DVD and video collections. For (a), media measurement companies like BigChampagne track media downloads in p2p networks and sell access to their data. Situation (b) would be nearly impossible to measure.

How many people are buying them?
"Them" being Video iPods or the video content? Either way, no official statistics are available yet. The Apple 4Q05 earnings call was on Oct 11. The Video iPods were announced on Oct 12. The first of the downloadable NBC shows were announced on Dec 6. Thus nothing is available yet. Your best bet is to wait for Jobs' keynote address at MacWorld (Jan 9-13) or the Apple 1Q06 earnings call on Jan 18.

What are the stats on what people are buying (PSP vs. Archos vs. iPod, etc.)
PSP - 3,750,000 units shipped in latest qtr // ~10 million total since Dec 12, 2004 introduction (src, PDF)
Archos - Hard to get unit numbers. You should try to distill something from their 3Q05 highlights and 04 AR.
iPod - 6,451,000 units shipped in latest qtr // ~28 million/yr (src)
posted by junesix at 12:25 PM on January 3, 2006