Apple’s Letdown
Apple has again made a push for total media domination of your life with their new Apple TV and the introduction of iTunes Ping. Unfortunately, they have fallen short once again where they could’ve blown us away with true multimedia convergence. Instead, they have made strides in several different directions that don’t change the current status quo.
(The hockey puck for your TV)
Apple TV
I have owned an Apple TV for nearly 2 years now. It isn’t a device for everyone, but it definitely has merits that most people would find useful. It’s perfect for streaming music and movies from my iMac and it is great for the occasional movie rental. What it doesn’t do is change the way I consume television. Apple has admittedly qualified the Apple TV as a hobby and not a device that they see being ubiquitous anytime soon. This is thanks to the institution of media box rentals that has been put in place by cable and satellite companies for the past 20+ years. Tivo and Apple TV have proven that it is nearly impossible to compete with what Americans are used to. Nokia has seen the same problem with mobile handsets in America (this is a wholly different debate). While I agree that the current offerings from companies like Apple, Tivo, and Roku leave little to rattle the machine that runs the cable and satellite industry, they do have an unprecedented opportunity to change the game.
The latest update to Apple TV’s OS includes the concept of low-cost TV and movie rentals. My problem with this is that media ownership is not the issue users had with the previous Apple TV platform. The value play that services such as Netflix or even a DVR offer is that they take into consideration households with more than one TV viewing schedule. I watch several shows with my girlfriend that we never get to watch together. I may watch the show on the day of broadcast and she may get to it the following weekend. In this rental world our household will be punished for not being able to be together to watch shows within the rental time period. A subscription based model would alleviate this issue. I can imagine tiered rates for TV shows and even movies. Imagine having the following options for TV:
- $8.99/month - access to 3-4 shows of your choice
- $9.99/month - access to 6-8 shows of your choice
- $13.99/month - unlimited access
This would drive me to pay for services from iTunes while still paying for Netflix. The premium price for the content would be justified in immediacy of the shows availability.
The update to Apple TV also doesn’t even attempt to take out any of cable’s stake in live and recently released content. The rumored iOS/app centric approach to the Apple TV would have started to tackle this issue by allowing content providers such as CNN, ABC, Hulu, etc, their own means of distribution and monetization. Oh well, maybe next time?
(They’ve gone gaga over sharing)
iTunes Ping™
Apple is finally trying to get social and iTunes Ping is their solution. They have started to incorporate features from Lala.com which they acquired last year, but Apple hasn’t been able to change their approach to purchasing music and the problem of universal access of owned songs/albums. That said, I do believe that iTunes is socially on the right track. Recommendations from friends and following artists will be huge. Personally, I will be using the social aspects of Ping and then going to Rdio to add the music to my collection their (more on that here).
Recap
- Low cost rentals still a high cost at the end of the month
- No solution for live/recently released content
- Great social functionality for discovering music
- Stale approach to owning music
I had my hopes for this event as I do every time Stevie J takes the stage. I’m not 100% disappointed with the announcements today but I do see great room for improvement on their core offerings. All that said, I’m going to go pray to my Jobs crucifix. All hail Jobs.
