The new video iPod is a mediocre product. Similar products have been on the market for months, some (like the Sony PSP) with far superior screens. Battery life is low and it’s deliberately crippled by copy protection. And think about it – are you interested in watching an episode of Lost on a two and half inch screen? Do you think anyone else is? I don’t.
More to the point, it raises the question of why the video iPod earned an article on the front page as well as the lead article in the business section of the newspaper a couple of days ago. Here’s an article about the inordinate amount of attention paid to Apple’s product launches and the short memory that prevents mention of the numerous failed products whose launches were reported just as gleefully. The video iPod articles don’t mention the iPod Photo, a failed product from only a year ago. The iPod Shuffle is being swept under the same carpet.
Apple puts its machines in pretty boxes, and it was ready to step in when Sony dropped the ball in the portable music world. (Remember the Walkman? It seems like ancient history now, but Sony ruled portable music at one time.) Apple is swell. I like Apple. But the media’s overreaction to Apple product launches is getting tiresome.
