The iPhone 3G S -- Doing to Mobile Video What the iPod Did to Mobile Music

It can't be denied that the iPod revolutionized the music industry by popularizing mobile/portable music on a massive scale. Apple's introduction of the iPod in the early years of this decade -- during my years a Musicmatch (remember Musicmatch?) -- marked a watershed for consumers. Apple made portable music drop dead easy, elegant ... and fun. Yes, fun.

Apple is now doing it again with its recent launch of the iPhone 3G S and mobile video capture. Just like the digital portable music world prior to the iPod (Creative and others were well in the game before the iPod saw the light of day), mobile video capture is nothing new. Many have been doing it for years. But, once again, Apple has made mobile video capture drop dead easy, elegant and -- yes -- fun. See a pattern here?

So much so that in the few days that Apple launched its new iPhone 3G S, uploads from mobile phones to YouTube leaped 400% on a daily basis! Think of that number -- unbelievable. But, when you think about it, it is not all that unbelievable, because Apple has done this before -- revolutionizing a market, in other words.

Apple's 3G S -- which TechCrunch recently pronounced should have been called the Apple 3G V ("V" for video) -- marks the mass popularization of mobile video ... which, in turn, will further accelerate the break-neck pace of Internet video in general.