iPods - knowledge at your fingertips?
Why are iPods so popular? What if you could have radio or TV programmes downloaded for you. Next it could be company news and training. And the sales mesage for the products and services you need. The future will bring the whole thing in real time, without the need to download.

First it was just music from the Internet
If you are reading this on the train, look around you. How many of your fellow passengers are wearing those little white earphones? Maybe you are too. iPods and their close cousins are almost completely ubiquitous and many people now take their music wherever they take their mobile phone - in fact the two are being combined in the latest phones.

Even two years ago the majority of people would have been nervous of downloading music from the web to a mobile device with its techie terms such as “synchronisation”; now it's cool.

Now it is radio or TV programmes too
The next stage is 'podcasting' where your favourite radio programmes are available online for you to download just like music tracks. You missed the Radio 4 Today programme this morning? Just download it from the BBC website onto your iPod and catch up with it on the tube.

Podcasting looks like it will change the way people listen to radio in the same way that Sky+ and hard disk video recorders have changed the way in which people watch television. Apart from the News and sports events, I have not watched “live” television for some time. When I switch on the television, I check to see what the video recorder has saved for me and then pick what I fancy. I can pause the programme if the phone rings and I am not slave to the programming schedules. I can skip commercials and record what I want to keep onto DVD for playback in the distant future.

Although this is not how I think of it when I am watching television, this technology allows me to use my time more effectively. I do not have to schedule my time around a particular TV programme and this allows me to do other things at a more convenient moment.

For many years, educational organisations have used video recorder technology to enable distance learning - either send the tapes by post, or air a programme late at night knowing that the students can record it and play it back. However, for mainstream programmes, video recorders were still challenging to use regularly and the huge advantage of hard disk recorders is their ease of use.

Better still, iPods are so intuitive that they seem almost welded to their owners. Taking things further, you can now download TV programmes and films onto iPod like devices and most Pocket PCs and Palm devices can use software to do this. At present this is still one step beyond most consumers but when Apple or Sony packages this conveniently, perhaps with your mobile phone, we will be able to catch up on last night's “Corrie” on the tube in the morning.

Next will come company news and training
And that is where this technology becomes really interesting in business: not for Coronation Street but for industry news and views. Up until now, educational programmes and training software has had to be deployed at a television or at a desk. Many workers find it difficult to cut an hour out of their working day to watch a corporate training video, especially when the telephone is next to them. These same employees have adjusted to answering their e-mails on the train using a Blackberry. The podcasting technology will allow them to listen to news and training on the train and, in due course, they will be able to watch the video too.

This example of the way convenient technology changes people's behaviour provides us with many opportunities. Look at EGTV, for example; there may be more pressing things to do if you need to be at your desk to watch it. However, if you download interesting articles to your Pocket PC to watch on the train going home, EGTV is far more useful. Corporate intranets will suddenly start filling up with interesting video clips - well presented video is more effective than written articles but up until now, too time consuming to watch.

iPod video as a sales tool
Increasing use of video will help sales. Already Dabs, the online electrical retailer has DabsTV - web videos describing the features of their products. Residential agents are gearing up their TV channels and that glossy 3D guided tour video of a commercial development lends itself perfectly to downloading and viewing when you have a moment out of the office.

The future will bring the whole thing in real time
iPods, Blackberries and HD video recorders have shown that people will change their habits if there is sufficient benefit. And this is just the start. Improved wireless technology in the next 5 years such as WiMax and 3g and 4g mobile phones will make access to content far easier and will make podcasting redundant. Why keep 10 GB of video on your Pocket PC when you can access the web and choose whatever you want?

In the meantime, podcasting can deliver the information you want in a convenient format at a time that suits you. Maybe you will need to start answering emails in the office again to free up your time on the train for industry news and views.

By Andrew Waller.
Article reprinted courtesy of Estates Gazette
Andrew Waller is Partner of Remit Consulting LLP

 
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