Robert X. Cringley, author and technology writer for PBS, speculates that the Mac mini and Apple’s forthcoming H.264 video codec will be key elements in an Apple movie download service. “It is simple to say that Apple hopes to repeat with video the success it already has with iPod and iTunes. Jobs denies interest in video, citing the dominance of cable companies, but then he always denies right up until the moment he changes his mind, and that moment is coming… If Apple hopes to emulate its iPod/iTunes success, what does that mean? It means selling hardware devices and proprietary content to play on those devices. The first such hardware device is probably the mini. And the proprietary content will be video encoded in AVC H.264, which will be supported first in OS X 10.4, promised for the second quarter of this year. So Apple can’t announce that it is in the movie distribution business until 10.4 (code-named Tiger) is available.”
