It appears Apple may be building towards becoming a vital part of the lifecasting, personal broadcasting, video streaming business. And with iTunes, the iPod and iPhone, and the App Store, it’s in a prime position to do so.
A Growing Sector
The lifecasting and citizen journalism sectors are both growing in popularity and importance.
Services such as Ustream, Justin.tv, and Livestream allow ordinary people the opportunity to broadcast, well, whatever they want to, within reason.
And with everyone owning a mobile phone, and new models coming complete with built-in video cameras capable of shooting good quality video, citizen journalists a growing band who can no longer be ignored.
iPhone, iPod Cameras
added video cameras to its latest models of iPhone and iPod Nano, and clearly sees the worth of giving its customers a way of shooting video.
The company saw this as a way of competing in an emerging market currently led by Flip with its compact camcorders.
However, there’s no point giving people the chance to shoot video wherever they are without giving them the tools both to stream the video live to the Web and share it with a wider audience.
Live Streaming Apps
Last week saw Apple approve two live-streaming video apps for the iPhone. Apple decided to drop its restrictions on the feature and both Ustream and Knocking Live Video apps are now available from the App Store.
So, in effect, everyone who has an iPhone 3GS now has the capability of shooting video and streaming it live to the Web.
Apple’s Future
This could be the start of a big plan for Apple to place online video at the core of its business. Steve Jobs isn’t one to miss a chance to get in on a new trend at the ground level, and that would seem to be the idea.
And Apple does, of course, have the perfect software in iTunes to immediately become a big player.
[Via Wired]
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