After much speculation, Steve Jobs has confirmed the tech world's worst-kept secret today: Apple is launching a video-enabled iPod so we can watch videos and TV shows while commuting. For all the details, check out Engadget. The iVideo - which Apple insists on calling the iPod - features 2.5" screen, and there are already 2,000 music videos available for $1.99 while TV shows such as Desperate Housewives can be bought for $2. So what does the iVideo mean to Apple? From a brand perspective, it reinforces Apple's reputation as one of the world's cutting-edge consumer electronics players - perhaps the Sony of the 21st century if you want to use a little hyperbole. With the iPod, Apple was smart and lucky, and it has aggressively unveiled new models (Shuffle, Nano, Mini, etc.) to maintain its dominance and buzz. Unfortunately, the iPod's success has also put Apple under huge pressure to maintain its momentum. When the company posted fourth-quarter iPod sales yesterday that failed to meet Wall St.'s lofty expectations (6.4 million units shipped vs. forecasts of 6.7 million to 8.5 million), Apple shares tumbled by more than 10% in after-hours trading. What this means is analysts and investors are likely looking for the iVideo to be a smash hit to restore the lustre of Apple stock. If the iVideo fails to live up to expectations, the market could quickly sour on Apple, and Jobs could suffer a huge blow to his reputation. That said, the key to the iVideo's success - aside from its features - will be content. If there is enough quality content that people will want to purchase and the iVideo works as well as the iPod, the iVideo could change the way we watch videos, television shows, etc. It all hinges on Jobs' ability to court the video world in the same way he won over the music industry. The deal with ABC  involving Desperate Housewives is a promising sign. You can bet that Apple's fiscal first-quarter sales, which cover the holiday sales season, will be much anticipated to see if the hype surrounding the iVideo is grounded in reality.

Cogeco Cable, one of Canada's largest cablecos, seems well on its way to reaching its "ambitious" target of 8,000 telephony subscribers by the end of fiscal 2006 after moving into four new markets today. Apologies for the tongue in cheek tone of this post but doesn't it seem strange that Cogeco has adopted such an ultra-conservative approach when the rest of the cable industy is so gung-ho on telephony? It's one thing to offer telephone service at a premium price like Shaw ($55 a month) but quite another to carefully tip-toe into a market with such good growth potential.

Cisco and Skype are joining forces to sell a new Skype-enabled phone. Cisco's $129.99 CIT200, manufactured by Richmond, B.C.-based Ascalade Communications, will be available Oct. 17.
(PriceWaterhouseCoopers has a nice look at the pros and cons while Tom Keating offers an extensive user review.) Speaking of Skype, I had lunch with a telecom analyst yesterday who's still stumped why eBay bought Skype and paid as much as $4.1-billion for it. Any way you want to break down the deal, he said, it doesn't make sense financially. A more logical deal is eBay's purchase yesterday of Verisign's payment processing business for $370 million. eBay will merge the business with its PayPal division. VeriSign’s software connects online businesses with payment processors run by major banks.
Now that a few weeks has pasted since the eBay-Skype deal, has anyone figured it out yet?

I have just started to do some writing for Alice Hill's RealTechNews, which was recently named one of CNet's Top 100 blogs. It's a good way to reach a new audience while hopefully driving some traffic to my blog. Alice used to be the editorial director for all of CNet's media properties. RealTechNews apparently started out as a hobby but has become much more that that. Check it if you have get a chance.