“Most Apple watchers are spending their time gaping at the current runaway success of the company and speculating about what the company’s Next Big Thing might be. The current odds seem to be on the much-rumored iPhone finally debuting–albeit first in Japan (see related story). But some coy remarks dropped by Apple CEO Steve Jobs at the annual shareholders’ meeting in April, coupled with a column in early May by the Wall Street Journal’s Walter Mossberg–who boldly asserted that an Apple media hub will be finally forthcoming–caused the buzz about an Apple-dominated living room to ramp up to a full throttle,” Alice LaPlante reports for InformationWeek. “‘It’s fairly easy to see where Apple is going,’ says Charlie Wolf, an analyst at Needham & Co. ‘The home is the next major battleground between a diverse set of players–whether they are PC companies or consumer electronics firms–and Apple intends to be a aggressive participant.'”
“Ease of use is the primary issue: consumers can’t be bothered with worrying about interfaces and complicated cables and instructions. ‘It has to be as easy to use and as reliable as a toaster,’ says Munster,” LaPlante reports. ‘Most people are very dissatisfied with the current offerings, and for that reason would welcome Apple’s contribution,’ says John Gruber, a prominent Apple blogger who runs the Web site Flaming Fireball.”
MacDailyNews Note: Gruber’s site is Daring Fireball: http://daringfireball.net/ (highly recommended)
LaPlante continues, “Apple is definitely behind the pack when it comes to announcing its intentions. The company has yet to define a comprehensive vision for the digital home, and so Apple watchers are–once again–forced to read between the lines. (At the company’s annual meeting, when told by a shareholder that everyone was eagerly awaiting the ‘ultimate media center,’ Jobs replied only ‘we hear you loud and clear.’)”
LaPlante reports, “Still, analysts say that the pieces are falling into place. With the introduction of the Intel-based Mac Mini in early 2006, Apple finally had a viable digital media server (the Mac Mini) that worked with a long-distance interface (Front Row), and a wireless network (AirPort). The major functionality missing at this point is the ability to directly view and record live television, according to Tim Deal, a senior analyst with Technology Business Research. ‘You can get that from third parties, but Apple needs it to complete its own portfolio,’ says Deal.”
“Some Apple watchers believe that Apple will introduce an IP/video set-top box that will bring the Internet and video downloads directly to the TV. Josh Bernoff, an analyst at Forrester Research, has predicted just that. He expects that current and future Apple technology will cumulate in a device he calls “AppleVision,” which will include digital video recording (DVR) capabilities that would make it an effective Tivo killer,” LaPlante reports.
“Indeed, many people are betting against the PC as the hub of the digital living room. It’s simply not reliably enough, for starters. In addition to all the other complexity, you’ve got ‘blue screens of death,’ viruses, and other malware that creeps in when PCs get involved in the hardware and software mix, says Phillip Swann, president of TVPredictions.com. ‘PC-based entertainment systems have a limited appeal, and will never reach the mainstream,’ declares Swann. ‘They are too complicated and confusing and designed with excessive features.'”
MacDailyNews Take: Everything we’re ever read from “Swanni” regarding Apple is complete nonsense (see related articles below). This is no exception. The obviously Windows-only “Swanni” doesn’t know that Macs don’t BSOD, have no viruses, etc. Microsoft Windows is too complicated and confusing and designed with excessive features. Apple does things different(ly).
LaPlante continues, “An end-to-end solution works when content choice isn’t an issue, points out Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Jupiter Research. The Mac failed largely because consumers wanted choices in their PC hardware and software.”
MacDailyNews Take: The Mac did not fail. 99% of people using a personal computer today use a real Mac or an upside-down and backwards Mac derivative (Windows.) Consumers in the early days of personal computing (and still today) bought Windows because they lacked the knowledge to make an informed choice. Choosing solely by lowest sticker price is not a smart way to buy a personal computer. People today still buy Windows simply because their friends buy Windows and their workplace uses Windows. They’re not “choosing” Windows, they just don’t know any better. In fact, people who actually use both Mac and Windows overwhelmingly choose Mac.
LaPlante continues, “Ted Schadler, an analyst at Forrester, adds that Apple has ‘defied conventional wisdom’ in all sorts of ways and will probably continue to do so. ‘The main thing is that Apple listens to its customers. It has the voice of the consumer in mind, and it designs for that buyer, and as the only computer company that does that, that makes it unique.'”
Full article here.
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Related articles:
Does Apple face delivery issue if they want to sell movies via iTunes Store? – June 28, 2006
TV analyst says Apple’s video-capable iPod is a bust because he says so – May 03, 2006
Notes from Apple shareholders’ meeting: ‘exciting’ TV ad campaign to launch next week – April 27, 2006
TV analyst blows it, says Apple’s 12 million video downloads ‘a big disappointment’ – February 08, 2006
If Front Row can stream movie trailers from Apple, why not whole movies? – January 06, 2006
TV analyst’s uninformed prediction: ‘video iPod will be Steve Jobs’ folly’ – October 12, 2005
Unless Apple and the Cable company allow a Cable Card interface so I can watch encrypted channels, it will be a hard sell to many people. Comcast moved all of their worthwhile channels to encrypted digital and you cant get to them without a box or cable card. I wish there was a box which I can hook up to the cable line entering my home and descramble the signals so any TV/ computer in my home could view any channel I wanted without having to RENT a cable box for each set I have in the house.
I pay a lot for cable TV why do I have to pay a “FEE” to watch it on each TV I have and deal with a lousy box with a poor interface.
As for a Tivo killer I use one now. A PC with 2 capture cards and BeyondTV. Scheduling the recordings by record all or just new is a snap and works great. Playback is handled by a MediaMVP connected to my TV and it streams the show from my computer over my network. I can pause FF RW and 30 second skip FF and 10 second skip backwards.
For HDTV I have another PC with an AccessDTV card that records OTA HD. The computer is connected directly to my TV.
No monthly fees and they work flawlessly. I use these PC’s basically just for this with no e-mail or surfing done on them. I don’t have any problems with them at all. One of them runs 24/7 through the TV “season” without a reboot. A properly built PC that’s set-up right can be completely reliable.
I would like to make the switch to a mac mini based system (mostly to reduce power consumption, noise and heat) but it would cost me about $2000 to replace what I have with the same type of system.
Hey, I have a Mac and I work for a cable system. Some facts-
1-We hate converter boxes. Plain and simple. No money is made off of them in the long run other than they allow digital converting.
2-FCC requires we offer analog in addition to digital for older T.V.s
3-Cable companies (ours, at least) could care less what you do with content. Buy the digital channels, phone service, internet service, and pay your bill. No evil here.
4-Cable Cards are the way to go.
5-Once we can go all digital, bandwidth will be less a problem. Then people with old TVs can use the converter boxes that Congress wants to supply.
me,
In the “early days,” the Mac had the most and (and still has) the best software. For example of firsts, Excel was a Mac app first, as was Word.
Yes, Macs were more expensive. Then, as now, you get what you pay for.
In 1994, I was so far ahead of “PC users” it was like I was an alien visiting from another planet. I was almost as far ahead of the “PC” crowd in ’94 as I am today with Mac OS X.
Even in the so-called “dark days” of the late ’90’s, Mac OS 8 & 9 had a better UI and there were many Mac-only Photoshop plug-ins, for one example, that a “PC” was a massive step backward. The “PC” never did catch up to the Mac. It doesn’t look like it ever will.
Hmmmm. Curiouser and curiouser! Let’s examine some facts.
1) Apple likes to bust on oligarchies/monopolies and makes money from doing it (M$, Record companies).
2) Apple is interested in delivering simple, easy-to-use products that interface well with Mac computers. These devices don’t need to run OS X to interface well. (Hello, iPod!)
3) Apple finds a niche that is being underserved and exploits it.
4) Apple doesn’t ship modems with their machines anymore.
5) Bittorrent will be built-in to Leopard.
6) Apple is negotiating with Hollywood to carry movies on iTunes.
Will Apple produce a multimedia hub that controls other devices? No, because they don’t make those other devices, and so can’t guarentee end-to-end compatibility and a seamless user experience. However, what I can see is a dedicated device that accesses iTunes for music and video that connects to a TV, is accessible by the local network, and responds to remote control.
My macmini and eyetv do this already.
If the Feds want to standardize something, how about a digital media interface for TVs? Why is a “CableCard” mandated by law which has two flaws:
(1) Version 1 (current) is one-way only. No interactive menus, etc.
(2) It doesn’t work with satellite-provided content
The point is that there are a lot of decisions being implemented (CableCard, HDMI, etc.) that will have a long-term impact on the design and functionality of the equipment that you purchase. I wouldn’t buy an HDTV right now unless it was dirt cheap.
Regarding HDCP…
The FCC stated that in the creation of this standard that a set-top with firewire outputs must be available to customers who REQUEST one, and encryption is not legal on broadcast stations. HBO ain’t gonna work. I was lucky, comcast provided me with a firewire box by default and I can record all PBS and broadcast HD content I want in pure MPEG2 transport stream via IEE1394. Here’s how
Ok, I agree with Busting…
“Will Apple produce a multimedia hub that controls other devices? No, because they don’t make those other devices, and so can’t guarentee end-to-end compatibility and a seamless user experience.”
Apple probably won’t make a media hub unless it only works with an Apple TV & an Apple Cable Company… hhhmmmm
Steve has always said that computing is an active experience (you determine what happens) whereas television is a passive experience (the TV stations determine your viewing, limited only by the remote control).
While on the whole this is how it works in practice, I think this is largely because the cable/TV companies DON’T WANT us to be active. The confusion over the multiple channels, lack of decent online TV guides, ads, TV resolutions, remote controls, lack of DVR, good shows on at 2 am, etc. seems designed to keep us out of control and in a passive role where we buy and keep buying/subscribing to the same programs again and again. I think this is why computer-based people (us) get frustrated with TV and like the TIVO. The TV and cable companies will never hand control over to Apple, MS, TIVO or anybody else who will let us control what we want to watch. Why? Because we’ll actively get the computer/TIVO to filter only the things we want to watch and so we’ll watch far less TV. Less TV means less ad revenue, especially with fast-forwarding through ads.
Apple-Dreaming
I hope Apple makes our TV watching more pro-active. I want to be able to watch the shows I want to watch when I want to (think iTunes movies to TV), I want to have it record every version of a series, plus I want to be able to get it to choose a show based on a pool of genres I specify (Dad-action, Mum-romance, kids-cartoons). When we no longer accept just whatever is handed to us, cable will seem like a lame technology in comparison.
How will this happen? Apple needs to become an internet ‘cable’ company. Plus it needs to provide subscriptions as well as sales, even if just for really old stuff. Plus they need a really simple box with a connector that plugs into any of these new HD TVs and a ‘free-to air’ card so that we unsubscribe our cable service and only have one thing to plug in to our HiFi/TV and only one remote control, yet an ever-expanding range of shows that we watch ACTIVELY.
MW: ‘truth’ as in ‘truth, justice and the American way’ (Superman)
I think that MDN is a little off here as well-
Way back when, Macs *were* much more expensive than your ordinary beige box PC. Yes, they were much nicer, but $1000 difference back in the mid-90’s was pretty big. Add in that Macs had all their own expansion options- SCSI hard drives, ADB I/O devices, NUBUS, and adding any after-market functionality to your Mac was, well, costly.
While I’ve preferred Macs for quite some time now, it is kind of funny to see the changes Apple has put through- no more SCSI, standard PCI and AGP expansion slots, industry standard RAM, and now even Intel chips. I don’t thnk any of these decisions were bad, as they make Macs much more compatible with other systems out there, and server as a good way to get people to switch over.
I do think Apple has made a few mistakes with their latest offerings, though. No modem on a laptop for one. Having optical drives that have no more functionality than my TiBook is another (MacBook Pro 15″ models are no faster than my 1Gb TiBook for burning, and don’t even support dual-layer DVD’s). Dropping PC Card slots is another- what exactly is the ExpressCard 34 slot good for again? What I’ve seen mostly is 2-port FireWire cards. The Mac Book Pro’s certainly have some nice features, but it kind of sucks that they went backwards in a few places…
We all know mac are currently more compatible and more competitive in price with PCs. However, I think the general public still remembers the Extremely Expensive, incompatible Macs of the past.
Similar to what Hyundai Motor Co. is doing to overcome the public’s original perceptions/experiences with its car’s poor quality – huge Ad campaign promoting its 10 year warranty and advance safety features in every car…
Apple must do something similar, better TV adds concerning boot-camp (Windoze switching warranty), Intel, pricing, compatibility…
I know, I hate to compare Apple to Hyundai, but Hyundai’s turn around formula appears to be closest analogy.
Why would Apple sell a (Mac or other) device with a DVR which records television content for free when they are trying to sell that same content for $1.99 at the iTMS?
Answer: They won’t
While we’re at it, could someone please tell LaPlante that the name of John Gruber’s site is “Daring Fireball”, not “Flaming Fireball”. John’s nose is a little out of joint about it.
I didn’t read the entire summary, or I would have seen that MDN’s editors caught the “Flaming Fireball” booboo. Thanks good folks. And they’re absolutely right: “Daring Fireball” is highly recommended.
“Let me translate this line for you. “Consumers wanted choices” = “people are cheap ass bastards that will settle for a just good enough solution if it will save them a couple bucks”” Unfortunately, you are only half correct, they are are also dumbass bastards, because after saving a couple of bucks on the front end, they never seem to realize the over bloated costs they are soaked on a regular basis just to keep their POS PC running.
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“Let me translate this line for you. “Consumers wanted choices” = “people are cheap ass bastards that will settle for a just good enough solution if it will save them a couple bucks”” Unfortunately, you are only half correct, they are are also dumbass bastards, because after saving a couple of bucks on the front end, they never seem to realize the over bloated costs they are soaked on a regular basis just to keep their POS PC running.
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I’ve used MacOS (At least System7, if not earlier, through OS X), Windows (3.1 through 2003), OS/2, and MANY flavors of UNIX/Linux. Way back I cut my teeth on Atari PCs and Apple IIs. I choose x86/Windows for my personal machine and x86/Linux for my personal servers. Now, if Apple would sell MacOS unbundled, I’d probably give it a shot. It isn’t a bad OS. But I don’t care to pay for Mac hardware when I can build a PC from components that is faster AND cheaper.
The other issue is the reality of market support. The software I use is often not available on Mac – TiVo Desktop, for example, is lagging on Mac. Games are another issue. My personal PC is primarily used for email and web access, and as a terminal for SSH to UNIX/Linux boxes. It is also my TiVoToGo and iTunes box, and the sync home for my Treo. It does everything just fine. It is reliable and stable and I don’t have trouble with viruses or malware because I keep things updated, run AV software, and I’m not stupid. While a lot of the things I run are available on Mac, or have an equivalent (Firefox, Gaim, SSH, iTunes, OpenOffice, Semagic (LJ client), emacs), they don’t run any better – so why pay more for the platform when the one I’m using is solid and good enough, and costs less?
I’m a Director of IT Operations and I’m primarily a UNIX guy. So I like that MacOS is a pretty FreeBSD-like on a Mach microkernel. I think Apple’s hardware design is slick, and I do love my iPod. But, as pretty as Macs are, I can’t justify paying their prices. Pay more for less performance, and then face more trouble with software support? If the hardware costs were lower I might pick one up and run Parallels and have both. But, as it stands, I’m thinking of VMWare Server on generic hardware with simultaneous XP/Linux.
So is it about cost? Definitely. But that doesn’t make a person ‘cheap’, nor a ‘dumbass’. I paid more for an iPod than I could’ve paid for other digital music players, but I did so after playing with a few options and deciding the iPod offered the best interface and had the best market support. MacOS has it’s appeal, but not enough to overcome the overpriced hardware. If Apple decides to sell MacOS for generic x86 boxes, I’d be happy to give it a shot in my life – probably virtualized alongside Windows and Linux. Apple can tout the i* stuff they include – but for me I don’t care. I’m not into making home movies and DVDs. I’m not into digital photo albums and that crap. My HP Windows laptop came with a bunch of those apps installed too – I deleted them, along with MS-Office, to free up more room.
If you don’t know what you’re doing, Macs are easier to get going on. So all things being equal I’d give a newbie a Mac. But not everyone who has used both is going to go with the Mac – I know a number of people with experience on both who aren’t Mac users, and I know people who use both who are Mac users in their personal systems. That doesn’t make either group better than the other. Running Windows doesn’t make you a dumbass, and running MacOS doesn’t make you brilliant. Deciding not to spend money on overpriced, but slick, hardware does not make you ‘cheap’. I don’t care if my desktop PCs are in beige boxes – I don’t care what they look like, I care how they perform and what they cost me. I care what my car looks like.
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Interesting that when you visit Phil Swann’s website, a small (16KB) file called “xply.wmf” is automatically downloaded. This file is infected with the “Exploit.WMF.A” virus.
Be careful.
i have got a g5 a eye tv 410 (cos i am in aus) and two eye home boxes it works great i record everything onto the mac and then play it back on the eyehomes elgato claim on their website that you can use wireless to hook it up but for movies and tv it just dosent cut it it just jumps and skips the only problem is that it dosent support 50fps hd but appart from that it is fabulas it works even better with a logitech 520 remote cos one button sets it all up