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iPhone may benefit from: "But I never did care for music much. It's the high fidelity" syndrome

It was revealed this week that movie producers are happy to see people play films on a nice, quality display like the iPhone. So they're doing deals with Apple.

Is the iPhone high definition? No more so than the iPod is HiFi. So... what's going on?

Not since I discovered a friend with a hearing defect spent three grand on a high-end audio system has the gadget industry given me such a laugh: HD televisions are selling like hot cakes. And only 44% of the people who bought them, actually receive HD signals.

I don't mind admitting it when I really get it wrong, and this is one of those occasions. A year or so ago, I was predicting (in a column in PCW magazine) that HD was going to be a flop because most people couldn't see the difference between HD and widescreen.

Actually, I even went so far as to say that anybody who would buy an iPod and call it high fidelity was obviously disqualified from good taste. You'd think I'd have thought it through; if people are prepared to spend real money on something which might as well be trash, why would they not spend incredible amounts of dosh on something that looked as if it was really cool?

This caught my eye in an analysis by TWICE, which spotted the discrepancy. It quotes the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) which "predicts 16 million high-definition televisions will sell in 2007, bringing the total number of HDTVs sold in the United States to 52.5 million."

And the study, entitled "HDTV: You Have the Set, But Do You Have the Content?" found that only 44 percent of HDTV owners receive HD programming. "The main reasons consumers stated for not receiving the programming was that it was too expensive or they were not interested."

Brainless? well, yes! - "Seventeen percent of HDTV owners say that they would not switch channels to view standard programming during commercial breaks, if the ad is shown in HD. In terms of content in commercials that capture viewers’ attention, a measurable difference is yet to be established."

As Beaverbrook is supposed to have said, nobody ever went bust underestimating the good taste of the general public.

The  complete study is available free to CEA member companies. Non-members may purchase the studies for $599.