What Apple has just created will probably be the most popular media device ever. With a beautiful screen and fast 3G internet access, it will be in the pockets of millions. Those iPhone owners are exactly the people that we are trying to reach. I know fourteen year olds with nothing better to do than to spend their parents money on an iPhone. I also know a sixty five year old iPhone owner who loves the device.

So what does this mean to you? You need to know the device – and how to deliver your media in the correct format so that it can be viewed on the iPhone. Does this mean that you are changing your delivery for one particular device? Sure it does – but the target audience of millions of iPhone owners is worth the effort. The format is not obscure – it is a widely accepted codec that will also allow your content to be shown in any web browser and can be downloaded for an ipod. From Apple’s website:

iPod and iPhone can play the following video formats:
* H.264 video, up to 1.5 Mbps, 640 x 480, 30 frames per sec., Low-Complexity version of the Baseline Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 kbps, 48 Khz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats
* H.264 video, up to 768 kbps, 320 x 240, 30 frames per sec., Baseline Profile up to Level 1.3 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 kbps, 48 Khz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats
* MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 x 480, 30 frames per sec., Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 kbps, 48 Khz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file format

How do you get your video in that format? Final Cut (using Compressor) or Quicktime already has built in settings for iPod video. Remember, the iPhone is still an iPod. Just choose one of those presets and try it out.

So once you have the video in the right format – to place it on your website you have to use the correct code. Just any code won’t do. Here it is:

<embed src="sample.mov" width="320" height="256"></embed>

Now there are a ton of extra pieces you can put in the code to make it do really cool stuff – but sometimes easy is better.

Remember – try it out before you make it live for the world to see. Use your own iPhone – it’s less than $200 and you can always blame the “I’ve gotta have it to test our video” excuse, or ask a friend to hit your website. We just started using a new process for encoding our videos – only to find out that the new encode won’t load on the iPhone. Test, test and retest before you look silly to your audience – or they can’t see it at all.

Check out this video with your iPhone. See.. it actually works!
Have fun with your new iPhone audience.