Why Apple can't announce their 6G iPod Video

Steve Jobs is a smart guy, he knows that you need content to sell hardware. If there isn't any compelling content then the result will be weak harware sales. In the same way that Apple sells the entire widget (hardware and software), Apple wants to sell iPod and iTunes. When the 5G iPods came out, Jobs announced music videos and TV shows for download. He said movies would take too long to download.

So to take care of this problem, Apple will/has already set up a streaming movie solution. You can begin watching as soon as you click buy. The problem is that the movie industry wants the same thing the music industry wants. They want to rent you digital downloads. They don't want to sell downloads for fear of piracy. This fear is what gave Apple the lock on the music digital download market. The music industry refused to give the same terms to any other company, everyone else was forced by the music industry into selling monthly rental fees ala Rhapsody, Napster, etc. Only after the music industry saw the massive market share that Apple gained from selling songs instead of renting them, did they let the cell phone industry sell songs (on terms that are likely not as profitable).

The movie industry and Apple are currently battling this same plan out behind the scenes. Apple wants to sell movie downloads and with his new position as the largest investor in Disney, hopefully he will be able to pull it off. Until then Apple won't announce their 6G video iPods .