Prepare Yourself For iPod Video
Like most people who've had an iPhone 3GS in their hands, we've been extremely impressed with the video capabilities of this little device. Not only Does it take near-HD video, it has excellent basic editing software and video can be uploaded to YouTube over Wifi or the cell networks.
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple's video story has been building in steps: back in December 2007 the open question was how to share video between an iPod and an iPhone (sharing video between iPod and iPhone), and by April 2009 BusinessWeek was asking whether moviemaking was the next big iPhone use case (Moviemaking as the next big iPhone feature). The iPhone 3GS answered the capture half of that question — near-HD recording, basic editing, and direct YouTube upload over WiFi or cellular.
What's new here is inference from that answer: with reviewers confirming the 3GS video pipeline works, TechCrunch argues Apple has no reason to keep video out of the iPod line, and MacRumors' same-day pickup on camera evidence in a next-gen iPod touch and nano shows the rumor traveling. The one gap remains streaming — as a June TechCrunch piece noted, live video from the 3GS was still being blocked (live streaming from the iPhone 3GS blocked), so the rumored iPod video story would be record-and-upload, not broadcast.
First-order effects
- If the camera-equipped iPod ships as rumored, the 3GS's confirmed record-edit-upload pipeline reaches Apple's large installed base of non-phone iPod buyers, none of whom previously had a capture device in this ecosystem.
- YouTube stands to absorb the resulting upload volume directly: the 3GS path pipes footage straight to YouTube over WiFi or carrier networks, reinforcing its lead in monthly unique viewers at exactly the moment it is courting professional studio content alongside user clips.
Second-order effects
- Dedicated pocket camcorders lose their simplicity advantage once an iPod nano-sized device records near-HD video and publishes it without a computer in the loop — the standalone device's remaining case narrows to optical quality and storage.
- Carriers gain a new source of upstream data traffic as cellular becomes a first-class upload path for consumer video, while Apple deepens lock-in by making its media players both the camera and the viewing screen.
Third-order effects
- Capture, edit, and publish collapsing into one pocket device turns video from a product category into a standard component — the pattern the 3GS established spreading across Apple's lineup rather than staying a phone premium feature.
- A larger base of always-connected cameras feeds the user-generated side of YouTube's catalog even as it signs studio deals like the Sony agreement, pushing the platform further toward hosting both ends of the production spectrum.
The trend: Portable electronics are converging on a single capture-to-YouTube pipeline, with Apple extending the iPhone's video stack across its device line and upload networks replacing computers as the distribution step.