A YouTube purchase by Apple makes perfect sense.  It would give Apple a large market share of the consumer generated media market while providing a new reason to buy an iPod.  They could roll out a firmware update to all video iPods to play the Flash based video files or more likely come out with a new version.  Here is why it works:

• Video Quality - The quality of YouTube videos is nothing special but if you shrink those down to the size of the iPod screen, they will look great.
• Wireless Connection - Consumers have been asking Apple for a 802.11x or Bluetooth connected iPods for awhile now.  This would be the perfect way to roll it out.  By selecting and viewing YouTube videos wirelessly on your iPod, you will place the iPod as the true third screen (as opposed to 3G cell phones).
• Integration with iTunes - iTunes rocks.  Everyone knows it.  By taking what Apple has done for browsing large music libraries and tons of podcasts to the viral video market, finding awesome content would never be easier.  Also, after viewing a video through iTunes, a user could click a button that reads, "I want this on my iPod!"
• Pay for Play - All us viral video fans would be cynical about Apple’s motives in this purchase.   The talk of the blogosphere would be how Apple is now going to charge for YouTube downloads.  Damn straight!  Everyone is aware that the bandwidth costs are eating YouTube alive.  Why not charge a small fee for each viral video download.  Would it by $.99?  Probably not.  Would there be a way to cut the content creator into the revenue stream?  Possibly.  The point is, if anyone can figure it out, I’m sure its Apple.
• Larger Capacity iPods - If everyone is going to start running around showing their buddys the latest viral video, they are going to need larger hard drives.  This gives Apple a reason to introduce larger size iPods at higher price points (OK, I admit this one is kind of weak).

This entry was posted by Josh Kenzer on Wednesday, August 2nd, 2006 at 8:15 am and is filed under Current Affairs, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.