
  Apple May Be On The Verge Of Kneecapping The Cable Industry. Finally.  - AndrewWarner
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/12/21/apple-tv-kill-cable/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content=Google+Reader
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jsz0
There's a big opportunity here for someone. Lots of people prefer the linear
video experience. They want to flip channels and have content pushed at them
so they don't have to think. The other piece that's been missing for a while
on IPTV is live sports. Both MLB & NBA are now offering their league pass IP
video subscriptions on the iPhone. MLB is on the Roku set top already. Between
gaming consoles with IP video options, Smart TVs, and now more dedicated
devices like the Roku player I don't think Apple can stay out of this market
much longer. It's going to happen with or without them.

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jasonlbaptiste
Do to the 50 inch screen what the iPhone did to the 3 inch screen. The device
connected to my tv should be as open and capable as a computer, yet still fit
the form factor. ie- an iPhone is a full fledged computer running a real OS.
It just meets the form factor and purpose of a 3 inch screen.

What apps would you want to see on a 50 inch screen besides content (which is
the killer app)?

~~~
GeneralMaximus

      The device connected to my tv should be as open 
      and capable as a computer, yet still fit the form 
      factor.
    

Beautiful, incredibly easy to use, tightly integrated with your Mac, but not
open. Nothing Apple makes these days is open. OS X was the last product they
made that was sort of open.

(And I say this as a die-hard Mac user.)

~~~
jasonlbaptiste
Sigh, I know. I wish AppleTV was a purely open platform. Let me throw apps on
it, access websites I want, skin it, etc. The Mac Mini is the "real" appletv,
except the interface doesn't work so well for a tv. Essentially here's what I
want:

Put the mac mini, appletv, and time capsule in a blender. Appletv 10 foot
interface, mac mini open-ness/computing ability, and time capsule size storage
(TBs, not GBs).

~~~
CrazedGeek
Would a Mac mini and Boxee (<http://www.boxee.tv/>) work? It seems to match
what you want (except for the storage space).

~~~
jasonlbaptiste
I had an older macbook hooked up to my tv, but it was lacking the stuff I
mentioned and then some above.

I've been working on a hardware/software startup that does exactly this. It's
running a pretty specific hardware combo with customized linux distro that
works for the big screen for the price of a mac mini (with 6x the storage).
It's heavenly.

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noarchy
So how is streaming HD going to benefit those of us crippled by monthly
bandwidth limits? The cable companies aren't going to be encouraged to get rid
of those, especially in the face of a new competitor that uses those very
pipes.

And fwiw, I am in Canada, where ISPs have been imposing caps for a while now.
If you're lucky, you live somewhere where you can buy service (without a
monthly cap) from a re-seller (who themselves might be getting throttled by
Bell, or whoever else it is).

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stcredzero
It's amazing how sentences where [X] kneecapps the Cable Industry make
everyone exclaim a little internal "Yay."

We are peons. We are resigned to it. Markets do not work for US cable.

(EDIT: Pedantic version: the US "cable market" doesn't work very well as a
free market.)

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brisance
Looks like Apple is going to leverage on MobileMe. If you're a MobileMe
subscriber you will get an "all-access" pass to movies, video and audio
content etc with no ads. On top of that you get email, webhosting, "Find My
iPhone" features etc.

This is eWorld v2.0 as envisaged by Steve Jobs.

~~~
spicyj
No way can they pay each network $3/month for the current MobileMe price of
$99/year.

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ezy
Netflix is much, much closer.

~~~
houseabsolute
They're not moving fast enough and their On Demand offering is weak. If they
don't watch out, someone is going to displace them.

~~~
ezy
That's somewhat subjective -- I've found Netflix's OD to be pretty good. At
any rate, "weak" is less important than ubiquitous right now. Weak is easy to
fix, you just encode more titles and perhaps upgrade your software. Netflix is
on(in) almost every device that counts for home entertainment _now_. Not in
the future, not waiting for some specialized device or deal... they are
present and accounted for. All they need to do is start providing more recent
content, and they are there.

Apple is essentially nowhere in this space.. AppleTV is it. And not many
people bought into that (I did, and I was disappointed). Not only that, but
apple offers no clear benefit -- netflix is at least cheaper than driving to
blockbuster -- appletv has never been cheap to "rent" from and given the
quality -- that's not really justifiable.

~~~
houseabsolute
But if Apple gets the TV deal and Netflix does not, then all of these points
are moot. My point is that Netflix's drive to ubiquity over content is great
for getting new customers, but it doesn't offer much to someone who already
has a way to consume the content they offer. If Apple offers me a better deal,
I'll be dropping Netflix quickly.

