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NY Times: The Small Screen, Redefined
Unlike the iPod, the devices already in the marketplace emphasize their video features. These "portable media centers" use either flash memory or hard drives (like the iPod) to store music, video, photographs, games and data like calendars and phone lists. Models range from those with screens not much bigger than a postage stamp to those with displays that rival a small TV's in size.
..Video is typically displayed on these devices in the MPEG-4 format; files of this type can be found on a variety of Web sites.
So why watch video while you are out and about? "Certain video is perfectly reasonable to watch on a small screen," said Jeffrey D. Oscodar, chief executive of HandHeld Entertainment, maker of a portable player called the Zvue. He listed short films, news and humor as the types of content that people would like to see while on the move.
Plane flights are ideal for watching video on a mobile device, said Lisa O'Malley, senior brand manager for Creative Labs, maker of the Zen Vision player. Also, "give it to the kids in the back of cars or on a train," she suggested.
Nitin Gupta, an analyst with the Yankee Group, said the ultimate appeal of portable media players that emphasize video is not yet clear. "These devices do a lot, but the message gets muddled. What are they for?" he said. "The big challenge is to create a reason to watch video on a tiny screen."
Greg Joswiak, Apple's vice president for worldwide iPod marketing, agreed. "To be clear, there is no established video market yet," he said.
That is not keeping several companies from trying to create one.

posted by Jerry permanent link