“It’s being fought right now and it’s already almost over because the two biggest players in the smartphone app market, Google and Apple, are both already partnered up and penetrating the living room with their TV-app strategies using — and this part is key — the same respective Android and iTunes platforms that have already reached critical mass,” Willard writes.
“Critical mass and technology are so very often winner takes almost all,” Willard writes. “And the winners in the TV app world are going to be those that hit critical mass first. And that’s already being fought in real time and indeed with tens of thousands of apps ready to be unleashed via Android/GoogleTV and iTunes/AppleTV the TV apps batttle is almost over before it even hits your living room.”
Willard writes, ” As tech consumers and as tech developers and as tech investors, I have some great advice for you — stick with Google and Apple.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Premature. What’s Cody going to do for an encore, don a flight suit, land on an aircraft carrier and proclaim, “Mission accomplished?”
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “TonyTech” for the heads up.]
I haven’t see a single TV app from either company — MDN take is spot on!
Not sure I understand what he is going for. I thought the tv battle was between Apple and Google? Besides Samsung’s TV Apps who else is coming out with a new set top solution? Stick with Apple and Google? I always thought it was an either or thing. Not likely that I am going to add two more boxes to my entertainment rack.
Im beginning to think being a clueless hack is a prerequisite to write for Marketwatch. Willard and Poletti are two of the worst.
Isn`t this app bubble boy from yesterday. So yesterday he`s going on about an “app bubble” today it`s TV-apps strategies dominating the market. Make up your mind friend, shit or get off the pot.
What a stupid article/claim. Like satellite/cable providers are just going to roll over and let Apple and Google take over their industry (yes, it is satellite/cable and not network TV which rules the industry).
So far, Apple and Google have done nothing to make the TV viewing experience any better/different than it already is, or that satellite/cable providers can’t do with On Demand shows. Until Apple or Google come up with a way to revolutionize how we access TV content, and in a way which the satellite/cable providers can’t simply copy or compete with, they will not rule the living rooms.
And that’s why AppleTV hasn’t caught on (and no, MDN, AppleTV hasn’t caught on, even though it has sold 6 mil, which really isn’t very many units). It’s a nice device, but nothing anyone needs or feels left out in the cold if they don’t have.
I fail to see how apps designed for an iPhone or iPad are going to be “must have” for the big screen TV. They simply won’t work the same, or won’t add anything to the TV experience. If anything, they’ll take away because you can’t watch your TV program while playing a game or surfing the web.
Analysts proclaiming TV apps as the next big thing aren’t thinking through how people would use them. A bigger screen isn’t necessarily better.
@Macromancer: I’m beginning to think the only clueless hacks here are MDN’s editors who are constantly wasting my time by continually quoting these blowhards and spreading their ignorant voices around the Interwebs…
I think the real hook here has got to be apps. Apple will have to rip reasonably priced content from the network’s cold dead hands. Apps will be the trojan horse that will start the stampede.
This app hype is getting a little ridiculous. Significant changes in the world of TV will take a long time. The cable/satellite/ISP companies as well as the broadcast/media companies are too entrenched and they’re going to play hardball to make sure they get their share. They won’t roll over like the record companies. Apple and Google have will have to fight and claw for every inch going up a steep, high hill.
I don’t know if this should be considered the same thing, but Plex just released their new version at midnight. Its called Plex/Nine and includes media server software and you can buy the iOS version for the iPhone, iPod and iPad! Who needs Apple’s TV when I can use this awesome product and stream my Netflix through it as well as see all my home movies too.
http://www.plexapp.com
It’s cheap, Apple could snap it up and bypass the ISPs by using Internet up, satellite down and offering more choice directly to Apple TV or whatever replaces it.
Re: MacDailyNews Take: Premature. What’s Cody going to do for an encore, don a flight suit, land on an aircraft carrier and proclaim, “Mission accomplished?”
Right on, hippy dog.
Apple iTV will work with any HD TV out there. Google TV will be built in. Which one would I take? No brainer. You don’t want your “cable box” to be locked into the same tech for 8 years. My TVs have lasted up to 13 years. Hooking a new “box” to it makes more sense and is far more functional.
This is extremely premature. And he’s a fool to discount Microsoft. Their Xbox 360, which has a large following, already does Facebook and Twitter, in addition to games, as well as integrating movie and TV services from third parties like Sky and Netflix. It’s not a stretch to imagine them allowing apps from third parties if Apple and Google decide to get serious about the living room – if they do, then Microsoft, unfortunately, has a head start here. It will be interesting to see how this pans out over the next few years.