Playboy Steps into iPod Podcasting with iBod
Playboy.com has harnessed the digital photo revolution to put the sexiest girls next door in the palm of your hand with the site’s new “iBod” editorial feature. Given the popularity of handheld media toys like Apple’s new iPod Photo, Playboy.com has created both non-nude and nude image galleries to help beautify these portable players. Apple’s iTunes has led the way for ecommerce enabled multimedia music search engines over the past year and if the popularity of items like VideoNow and JuiceBox over the holiday season is any sign, the iPod Photo may soon be followed up by a total video enabled multi-media player from Apple.
“Playboy has always been committed to delivering the fun and sexiness of the classic Playboy lifestyle to customers on any media platform they wish to use” said John D. Thomas, editor of Playboy.com. “The overwhelming response we have received for this feature supports our theory that iPod Photo users are a technologically advanced group with a significant interest in enjoying beautiful Playboy images.” The “iBod”editorial feature on Playboy.com consists of 25 non-nude images of sexy Playboy models perfectly sized for the iPod Photo’s display screen.
Besides hearing from Playboy executives, Search Engine Journal has also compiled a list of bloggers and iPod fans with their opinions on Playboy’s iBod. From EnGadget: So it’s only taken Playboy roughly six weeks to figure out how to exploit the iPod photo with the iBod, which is basically just a set of thumbnail porno pics specially formatted for the iPod photo that you download to your computer and then upload to your player (so you’ll have a little something something to enjoy no matter where you go). The first set’s free (and R rated—hey, we were just doing our research), to get the others you have to sign up for the Playboy Cyber Club.
Steve Hall at AdRants sounds off “To introduce its new iBod digital image service, Playboy has posted an initial gallery. The gallery consist of PG rated pictures sized appropriately for the iPod Photo and other portable image devices. The service will debut in January and hopes to keep the Playboy brand alive as portable image and video devices, not to mention the Internet as a whole, makes a printed nude pictorial magazine moot.”
TechTree sees iBod as a first step towards the popularity of mobile adult entertainment; ” According to the promotion on Playboy’s website, the user can either view individual images or entire slide shows in the palm of his hand while he is travelling or he wishes to entertain himself during “a boring lecture”.
If IT research group Visiongain’s predictions about growth in the mobile porn industry is to be believed, the wireless porn profit should touch about $4 billion by 2006. The growth is expected in countries where 3g wireless networks capable of delivering high speed Internet access are well-developed.”
