From the Road

Spending a good bit of the past two months on the road I have been interested in the uptake of digital media devices. While I am saying media, I am most interested in how our society is embracing the digital video revolution that is upon us. Items such as the iPod Video and the PSP have provided great video capability.

Honestly, I have been quite surprised by the sheer amount of people watching personal video players. On a recent flight from Los Angeles to St. Louis I counted over 20 people watching videos…the majority of which were on Video iPods. A very small amount was being watched on what I believe is the best digital media device out there today, the Sony PSP. Doing a bit of back of the envelope math, there were probably 140 people on my flight, equating to a 14%. That number did strike me as high. But given that I was flying out of LA and my flight seemed to skew a bit younger it probably makes sense that it was higher than my “just south of 10%” guess.

In terms of content, I was moving through the cabin and glancing at a two-inch screen, so much of it was difficult to decipher, however movies seemed to be the big winner (which I suppose seems natural). However I was proud to see one passenger watching Chappelle's Show on a video iPod. I have no idea if the shows are available on iTunes, however that along with the BBC version of The Office is probably something that I would buy.

Aside from digital media, I find it rather interesting that none of my flights offered meals in coach. The only offering was a snack box on all of my American flights. I found it surprising because US Air consistently offers a meal, which costs roughly $7, and I have yet to be on a flight in which they did not sell-out. I would be willing to pay $7 for a decent meal on most of my longer flights…hopefully the other will follow US Air’s lead here.