I was tempted to set up a new category for this story - Bears And Their Toilet Habits - as on the face of it, it looks like it's stating the bleedin' obvious.

But this report by Nielsen Media Research should be looked at in another way. After more than a year on the market, the video-capable iPod is not being used all that much for its video capabilities. Nielsen researched a sample of iPod users, and found that only 1% of them used their device to watch videos with any regularity.

Yet whenever an iPod revision is on the horizon, the clamour is for more and better video handling on the device. A 'true' Video iPod would probably have a lot more screen real estate, and this would have a negative impact on battery performance. At this moment, Apple sees the market as preferring a 12-hour between-charge battery performance than having an all-singing-and-dancing video device, that would probably have double the drain on the battery.

Apple's focus on movie matters at present is firmly on its iTunes Store and the forthcoming iTV device, which will allow the direct streaming of online video to a TV. When you think about it, watching a movie on a TV-sized screen is a lot more satisfying than watching it on a 10cm screen, which is the size the screen of a video iPod would likely be.