[Josh] Sorry for the brevity, filing this one between meetings in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
As we expected, Apple announced movie downloads -- and a new device they call iTV. We predicted this back in January -- only we called it "Applevision." Apple knows video isn't really worth doing unless you can get it to the TV. iTV won't be out until next year.
What's right about iTV: (1) it's on the TV, (2) it potentially gives access to Internet videos to the TV, (3) it's cheap, less than $300.
What's wrong, or at least open questions: (1) it doesn't have a hard drive or tuner to store programs, (2) wireless video streaming is verry iffy in terms of quality, (3) Will it support the thousands of videos out there not in QuickTime or FairPlay format, like Google video and YouTube? Probably not. (4) What kind of picture quality can you get from stored, streaming video. (5) New set-top boxes that don't offer spectacular functionality typically don't do well.
We'll see what happens, but this is not going to be a runaway success. Put in a cablecard, a tuner, and a hard drive and then I'll get interested. What it may do, though, is stimulate companies like Motorola/Comcast, DirecTV, Cisco, and Microsoft to build set-top boxes that are also DVRs and can access Internet video. And THAT would be interesting. (Although it would reveal just how crappy Net video really looks on a TV set.)
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