WSJ:
Apple is also working on its own television that relies on wireless streaming technology to access shows, movies and other content, according to people briefed on the project.
In the recent meetings with media companies, the Apple executives, including Senior Vice President Eddy Cue, have outlined new ways Apple’s technology could recognize users across phones, tablets and TVs, people familiar with the talks said.
This is going to be big. Even though its competition has warning of Apple’s plans, I don’t think they understand the scope of Apple’s plans.
US is one thing, I wonder how Apple gonna deal with other “content providers” of the rest of the world?
This is all nonsense and speculation. And on top of that, everything they talk about, we already have in one form or another (though it’s not elegant).
The problem is, and always has been, that we don’t have current TV shows available. This alone will continue to keep this technology from a broad audience.
Until I can watch House, or NCIS at the same time (or within an hour or so) as people with a regular TV and cable system, this is never going to work on a mass scale. This is why HULU is, for the most part, a failure and Netflix isn’t as big as it really should be. Nobody wants to wait weeks or a whole season to watch episodes.
Despite big media claiming it’s the lack of live sports that will keep us from web TV, it’s really the everyday shows that will prevent anyone from “cracking it.”
@twitter-62446680:disqus – each region presents its own challenges. There’s over 50 years of entrenchment of the current regional TV exclusivity deals around the globe, and it makes it very hard for Apple to penetrate some countries. Just think how long iTunes has been selling music in the US, and how many countries still don’t have an iTunes music store…
Apple doesn’t control the content, which is the largest hitch in their TV/Movie offering. I love renting movies on my AppleTV, and haven’t bought a film since I got it, but the inconsistency of availability can be maddening. Some studios hold the rental option for 30 days, or NEVER offer movies for rent. And even though HBO has shows on iTunes, try finding BAND OF BROTHERS or BOARDWALK EMPIRE or GAME OF THRONES. The content makers only HALF want to be in this game, because a majority of their revenue is still coming from the old cable deals. It’s going to take some kind of tipping point to make them scramble and get onboard (when they think they’ll loose money if they don’t).
There are only two ways to deliver TV content (besides the way it is now)- either ala carte by show (like iTunes does now), or on a per-channel basis. And depending on what kind of TV watcher you are, any one of these three could be the right option for you.
It will be interesting to see where this goes…
Actually, I like to wait. I can watch multiple shows all at once and not have to spend a week in between each forgetting the story being carried from show to show. In fact, I like buying or renting the DVDs and just watching them all in a couple of sittings when they aren’t on Netflix.
If Apple does make a TV, I’ll be interested to see how they make it different and useful enough that people will want to buy one. Then they have to get beyond the issue of people only buying TVs once every 5-10 years. The revenue stream will have to come from something else.
I may not agree with your examples, but I’m suspicious that Apple is really working on a TV set, too. I’ll never say never, but I haven’t figured out the why yet to get me to agree with the rumormill.
Who says you WON’T be able to watch live TV? What if you hook up your cable/satellite box up to the Apple Television and you are able to use a Siri-like interface to surf rather than the clunky native interfaces/remotes? “Siri: I want to watch Bones” “Siri: I found the following results for Bones”, which would include content from all sources: Netflix episodes, iTunes purchases, OnDemand episodes and a schedule of upcoming live TV showings…
Hulu is failing for several reasons, none of which are because of the delay between broadcast and availability:
• outside of the traditional channels (cable/satellite), customers don’t want to pay for content that has commercials
• Hulu isn’t easy to use
• Hulu isn’t generally available where people want to use it
Netflix’s problem is the same as Apple or anyone else that wants in – content providers are extremely slow-moving to accept new ways of selling and distributing content. I suspect most of it is because of the traditional advertising lobby is applying too much pressure to the content providers. Much like lobbiests have too much influence over politicians.
I have no problem whatsoever using the simple remote I got with DishNetwork – and I have a great 42″ LCD TV. So unless Apple pulls off a miracle allowing me to skip having a satellite account all together, what is the point?