Looking

over my past blog entries I think you can safely make the assumption that I am

an accomplished skeptic. I am suspicious of all hype, especially when it comes

to marketing hype. I am a firm believer that the best ideas of the past have

come from grassroots innovations that grow into phenomena because real people

find real value in the idea. The Word Wide Web, Linux, Yahoo!, – the garage

innovation rules the world in my mind.

Right now I

am feeling particularly skeptical of the hype surrounding

href=”http://www.techrepublic.com/news/clickthru.aspx?siteid=2&storyid=1105808″>video

streaming to small personal devices like cell phones and iPods. I was browsing through the local Best Buy, as I

often do on Sunday afternoons, and I saw a multitude of cell phones with video

capabilities, not to mention iPods with video. I love

the technology that makes video like this possible – I love gadgets just like

any geek in good standing.

However, personally,

I have absolutely no desire to watch video on my cell phone. But I also don’t

watch much television these days – I’ve never seen Desperate Housewives or

Survivor for example – and I can’t think of any television program that I want

to see so bad that I would be willing to watch it on a postage-stamp-sized

screen. And I would never want to watch a movie that way – I need big screens

and surround sound. There are already features on my cell phone I never use;

adding video would just be a waste.

But perhaps

that is just my feeling. Perhaps there is a market for personal device video. I

just remain skeptical. So I am asking for your perspective. Educate me. Do you

ride mass transit to the office and does video on your personal device sounds

like heaven to you? Or are you skeptical like me?