Portable video players: The next big thing?

In case our opinion hasn't been stated clearly enough: NO.

The author makes the point that I feel is right on the money:

Listening to music tends to be an activity that can coincide with a variety of other tasks. Watching a video, on the other hand, requires attention and can't be combined with as many other activities.

Even the stats from Jupiter back this point up well. Will people take video on the road? YES. Will it be through these types of devices? NO. In my opinion, the key devices that people will use for portable video:

Mobile phone (as they are with us all the time - not necessarily used for full length movies, but for video clips and streams, it's just a matter of time)

PDAs (assuming they still exist in the next few years, the only reason for the beautiful screens they are all now endowed with is to watch some content, as above)

The big winner: LAPTOPS, for more reasons than I have time to list here.

Bottom line: I cannot believe that consumers will buy a NEW device to carry around when they already have one of the 3 above (if not all 3), all of which are basically capable of performing the same task.

There is no video iPod - the portable music category is over 30 years old (remember Walkmans?), the portable video category has never been successful.

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