Highlight:
Television shows (including "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives"), films and music videos will be available at the iTunes store for playing on the recently released Apple video iPod. There are two versions, one for $299 and one for $399, both with a 2.5 inch-color screen.
Summary:
* Oct 12, 2005 --- Apple Computer Inc. introduced an iPod capable of playing videos on Wednesday, evolving the portable music player of choice into a multimedia platform for everything from TV shows to music videos.
* Videos will now be sold online alongside songs on Apple's iTunes store.
* Citing a groundbreaking deal with ABC Television Group, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs said video offerings via iTunes will include episodes for $1.99 each of the hit shows "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost," which will be available the day after they air on television.
* The purchased video can be watched on a computer or taken on the road for viewing on the new iPod's 2.5-inch color screen.
* The much-anticipated new iPods, available starting next week, will replace Apple's current 20-gigabyte and 60-gigabyte models.
* Apple hopes to repeat with Hollywood the coup it achieved with music labels: Ease an industry's piracy fears and transform its business models to include convenient, legal distribution of digital content over the Internet at reasonable prices for consumers.
* Short films from Pixar also will be sold via the iTunes store.
* But that's just the beginning, Apple executives say, noting that the iTunes store catalog has grown to 2 million songs from 200,000 at launch in 2003.
* More than 600 million downloads have been recorded since.
* "We've gained a lot of credibility in the industry in the past two and a half years with what we did with songs," said Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of applications.
* "And that's what we're trying to mirror in the video space."
* Analysts consider a video iPod a test of whether consumers would embrace video on such a small screen.
* Over-the-air TV services are already available for cell phones but the quality remains substandard.
See more articles and news on iPod
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