Apple’s “$1 billion data center will be at least five times the size of Apple’s largest current server facility, located in Newark, California,” Steve Rosenbaum writes for The Huffington Post. “So, the question is — what requires all those servers to power that Apple needs, and doesn’t have.”
Let’s review.
• Apple has video capture in iPhones and iPods, and now iPads as well. I hazard to guess that Apple is already the worlds largest producer of consumer video camera in the world.
• Apple has video editing / post production: Final Cut Pro, Garage Band, Logic Studio, Motion, Soundtrack Pro, and Color.
• Apple has content retail: iTunes, Apple TV, iPad, iPhone, and Apple computers.
“Apple is only missing one thing. The place where consumers and pro-sumers who make video put it. The place where the customers distribute, monetize, and manage the fast growing middle of the web video market. Consumer and pro-sumer video,” Rosenbaum writes. “Apple needs to build its own, Apple-branded YouTube — and they need to launch it in the next six months.”
Rosenbaum writes, “The rumor mill says they should, and they will. The name is, or should be, iVideo.com (The folks at Industrial Video in Ohio should be expecting a call any day now).”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: That could throw a monkey wrench into Google’s WebM plans – provided Apple doesn’t squat down and squeeze out another Ping.
Related articles:
MPEG LA goes gunning for Google, announces call for patents essential to VP8 video codec – February 11, 2011
\Along with Apple, Microsoft fully backs H.264, unlike Google – February 2, 2011
Google intent on derailing HTML5 H.264 video with WebM browser plugins for Safari, IE – January 15, 2011
Google pulls support for H.264 video out of Chrome web browser – January 11, 2011
Google’s VP8/WebM may face patent fight as Apple-backed MPEG-LA considers patent pool – May 21, 2010
Apple may be planning to sue Google over WebM video project, VP8 codec – May 20, 2010
Google’s big open video plan is called the WebM project…
Jobs: Ogg Theora may violate patents – Friday, April 30, 2010
Please don’t, Apple. You don’t “get” social. You don’t “get” things like this. Just stick to what you do best… making great hardware and operating systems.
There’s no way they’re going to be able to compete with YouTube on this front. It would be equivalent to Apple’s silly attempts at Ping or iWork.com or iDisk.
Hey, I use iDisk every day, it works great. The others, no objections…
Please! I can’t stand youtube. It is one of the worst experiences I have on the web. Feels like it was made for people who call Vista simple.
Standard Apple strategy:
When your competition threatens to use their flagship product against you, build a better solution. Final Cut Pro was the shot across Adobe’s bow that proved Apple could easily create and launch a product as complex as Photoshop.
I’m guessing we’ll see video/photo hosting and editing, search, mapping and iWork cloud apps as part of the NC data center capabilities suite. If that video, search and mapping then becomes default on the iDevices, you have a pretty big ecosystem that immediately migrates out of Google’s camp.
This will FAIL. miserably.
like they failed miserably at creating the video web codecs, not including creating the most unrivaled video format in quicktime?
For those of you not using digital video since 1991, apple owns non-linear video/RT editing. Apple has been streaming video since the 90s, before google even was around to consider buying Youtube.
And working for many for-profit companies with no vision, I had to install QT Streaming competitors such Real Player Servers and others which all paled in comparison to QT streaming at every compression ratio. This is back when an ISDN was the most a business would get for the phones, data, video, and audio.
So If company has the experience in streaming video it’s apple. They now have the capital to basically to do what they wanted to do in the 90’s.
QT unrivaled ? LOL – Quicktime time is inefficient CRAP. I know because my colleauges have worked with the QT SDK to write a Quicktime parsing engine. As did a partner company who is a major player in the video hardware market. Supporting QT was painful for them too.
QT looks great but is an inefficient format.
QuickTime is a program. If you think the program is bad, that is separate from thinking that the codecs and formats used by QuickTime are bad.
I just hope Apple never opens retail stores. They have no business doing that. Way outside their area of expertise. They would be shuttering the last of them a mere two years after opening them.
Just like Gateway.
If Apple could do the youtube thing and eliminate the copious profanity and inane comments, I’d be OK with that.
“provided Apple doesn’t squat down and squeeze out another Ping.”
LOVE IT! Can’t get the grin off my face.
But with YouTube SOOOO entrenched, I can’t see Apple making inRoads. They have to give it something else.
Doesn’t Vimeo already fit this bill somewhat? It seems like a very Apple-like website. Beautiful, minimalist design, and the content that is posted ranges from middle-of-the-road to top notch.
If anything, I would think that Apple would just purchase an existing media sharing company that’s been tested and is up and running rather than start from scratch.
meh.
The world doesn’t need another Youtube.
Apple’s MobileMe gallery already provides the most beautiful video and photo gallery on the web. Keep it exclusive. Don’t open it to the Youtube “Leave Britney alone” crowd.
Yeah, Apple should do just about everything the Google does and put this POS company out of its misery.
I love YouTube, except for the ads and assorted other things. But this is another rumor. I don’t believe in rumors.
Maybe it will get a rating system so that kids could watch videos as well – I won’t let my kids near youtube as there is a lot of crap that is way to grown up for them..
This rumor reminds me that there isn’t yet an app on the market that could automate the process. This is a gaping hole in the app store and something that could net millions for an aspiring developer.
Apple rumored to answer to
You could shake it just like Urbanspoon. You saw it here first!
The use of left and right angle brackets totally screwed that up.
/sigh
I have it on good word that these data management resources are actually being positioned for use with iPhone 12, which will feature a personal 3D communication app codenamed BodyTime.
Later on Apple will introduce personal tele-transportation capability into its iPhone/iPad lineup. Eventually, some time around the release of iPad 37, you will be able to backup your entire consciousness into The Cloud.
Heady stuff.
Love the opinions on something that is a rumor and which Apple certainly has not announced and for which there are obvious MULTIPLE uses of the data center capacity.
For instance: Apple needs capacity to satisfy software downloads from Apple users for updates, upgrades, iTunes purchases & App Store purchases.
Bet on 1 thing: Apple knows why it spent a billion dollars + on a data center.
Bet on a 2nd thing: Apple always has a trick up their sleeve.
As a video producer, I would love to see Apple develop a distribution system that allows effortless uptake of my video and monetization via iAds.
There’s your ‘go-to-market’ strategy.
.:.
It’s not going to be “another YouTube”. It’s going to be more like “The Apple Network”, as in “DishNetworks”, i.e. they will launch their own Television network, distributing programming directly from the production houses over the net. You will be able to get all your favorite existing content (HBO, Starz etc) as well as live Sports and News. They will also throw some of that cash reserve around to fund original content, like Netflix has begun.
This is the end-run around the cable companies and broadcast networks they need to be effective in video. It will take a while, but production companies will soon start to add The Apple Network to the list of possible exclusive targets for their content.
This time is right (finally) for this, the pipes are fat enough, the early adopter customers understand it enough to explain it to 10 friends and the existing incumbent networks have dipped their toes and shown Apple how not to do it…
Yes, but will those fat pipes tighten up like an obese man’s arteries after one too many cheeseburgers? I’m assuming the telco’s/cable companies won’t take too kindly to Apple doing an end run around them…..
I thought about this week when I noticed Apple promoting podcasts on Facebook. If you remember podcast was a grown phenomenon until YouTube hockey sticked.
how about ipod.com hmmmm yeah.
My friends inside Apple HQ tell me that consistently the smartest people in the room are the podcast people.. Somehow, I think something wonderful is being cooked up here.
before people bash Apple stuff like Ping as ‘failures’ lets chew on it.
Ping was designed with one of the fundamental functions to let people talk about music and recommend it to their friends, i.e to support iTunes sales. (not to mention discuss other Apple products).
I do not know how successful Ping is in doing that BUT I do know that iTunes made a billion bucks last QUARTER.
Facebook (maybe) made a billion and Google made 1 billion from mobile the WHOLE year ( if you minus iOS google search Android maybe gave google half a billion). i.e iTunes itself is making several times Facebooks revenues. Youtube lost money for Google for years.
as an Aapl investor I’ll rather Apple have social network (even a smaller one that makes money) than one that doesn’t. Of course I hope whatever Apple makes will be a good product.
I suppose if it provides good tools for “monitizing” the content it could be the beginning of Apple’s re-think of the television industry.
Yes, you can create your own “channel” on it — but so can HBO and other content producers.
Apple never skates to where the puck was. Try to visualize what YouTube should be and you might have a hint as to where Apple would go with this.
Data Centrr = Extend the Apple eco system
““Apple is only missing one thing. The place where consumers and pro-sumers who make video put it. … ”
Horse crap! Apple has had video hosting for ages as an integrated part of iPhoto, iMovie, MobileMe, and its age-old predecessor (.Mac). Monetizing it with iADs doesn’t make it new, or better, IMO, *unless* they find a way to offer MobileMe services for FREE!. Then I’d be okay with it.
I can see this happening.
Imagine Apple using the same profit ecosystem standard with this service as they do with iTunes and the App store. Anyone could upload videos/photos/etc. to their “channel” and get 70% of the advertising revenue. Apple of course would take their 30% AND deal with adding advertisers. Talk about building word of mouth. Every user would be talking about it and building it up in order to build viewership to their channel.
And this would be available to anyone, individuals and businesses alike, which allows the big content providers to do the same and profit off of it.
huh.. can’t wait to for this if it is true!
Um… how? This sounds like a pretty crazy rumor… how on earth could they build such a thing… Google couldn’t even do it.. remember Google Video!?