Why is no one watching video on their iPod

In case you missed it, Neilson reported that less than 3% of video iPod owners watch video on their iPods last week. This was based on a survey of 400 iPod users (only a portion of which own a video iPod).

I question whether you can reach meaningful conclusions based on such a small sample. And their are other problems with the study, some of which are outlined in this article.

But even if the results are accurate, I don't think they say too much about the demand for video.

Don't forget - Apple never released a video iPod. Instead, they added video to the iPod without changing the price point. That means for the past year, anyone who wanted to buy an iPod had to buy a video iPod.

This was sheer brilliance on the part of Apple. With that one move, they created an industry around video on the iPod, from The Office to Ze Frank. But it also means that most people who have a video iPod didn't make the decision to buy a video iPod. And that's why it's not surprising to me that the percentage isn't higher.

What Apple is counting on, and what the rest of us in the industry are counting on, is that the people who didn't have any interest in video when they bought their iPod might try it out. Maybe they'll like it. Or maybe they'll miss an episode of their favorite show, and decide to download it on their iPod.

Regular users? Maybe. But more importantly, they'll get familiar with consuming video that way. The biggest hurdle to overcome in making the leap from early adopter to mainstream is lack of familiarity.

Your grandma doesn't use firefox, and if she does, she doesn't download toolbars to customize it. Your quicktime movie doesn't play on her computer.

But maybe she has iTunes, and if she knows how to get a song, she can get a video. And if she has an iPod, and she listens to her music on it, the video she downloads will just show up on the iPod too. And maybe she'll watch it.

And then next year, when some thing she really wants to see is available only online, the chances increase that she'll watch it.

That's not the way you build big numbers in a year, but it's an interesting long term strategy. And, I think, a good one.