“Apple did throw down the gauntlet with iTV, a device that will plug into your tube, then wirelessly stream media from your home Mac or PC. A lot of techies have been working a long time to try to make this work well, and even Apple doesn’t have it right yet, since it’s not appearing until the beginning of 2007. Here’s who’s got the biggest potential to lose when iTV hits the street,” Seth Jayson writes for The Motley Fool.
Jayson writes, “The small fry who already make devices that do the same thing — and there are some — stand to lose in a big way. You can bet Apple’s version will be slick, clean, and resonate well with the iFaithful. For a company like Pegasus Wireless, which has been hyping its wireless video-transmission devices, this may be the final blow to a still-overinflated stock. And if the reported compatibility with PCs is true (hey Apple, do us all a favor and make it run Windows Media files, will ya?), even nonMacs like me will be tempted to pick one up.”
MacDailyNews Note: Don’t hold your breath on that one, Seth.
Jayson continues, “Hewlett-Packard stands to lose big in a couple of ways. The first is with ‘media PCs.’ Simply put, no one has made these workable yet… I give Apple credit for realizing that trying to jam a PC into our home theaters is probably a lost battle — at least for now — and taking the simpler route to link the office box to the family-room entertainment center.”
“But HP also stands to lose on an interesting product few know anything about: It’s been hawking a Wi-Fi-capable, media-crunching, 37-inch LCD “Mediasmart” TV for quite a while. The trouble for HP here is twofold. First, no one’s heard of this thing. (I only came across it in Mark Cuban’s weblog.) The next is that it costs more than the price of iTV plus a 37-inch widescreen. And, of course, folks who already have the big old widescreen won’t need to buy a whole new unit. Thanks to Apple, we’ll be able to just buy the gadget that interacts with the screen,” Jayson writes.
Full article in which Jayson begs Microsoft to fix Xbox 360’s media streaming so he can forgo the iTV here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “DLMeyer” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Disney CEO Iger: Apple’s ‘iTV’ has ‘small hard drive on it’ – September 19, 2006
Disney sells 125,000 movie downloads via Apple’s iTunes Store in first week – September 19, 2006
The most exciting feature of Apple’s ‘iTV’ may be its USB port – September 15, 2006
Cringely: How Apple plans to own your living room – September 15, 2006
LA Times: With iTV+iTunes Movies, Steve Jobs stumbles over the last 100 feet – September 14, 2006
BusinessWeek: If anyone can make bridge the great divide, Apple can with ‘iTV’ – September 14, 2006
The Beeb asks: Would you buy the Apple iTV? – September 14, 2006
Three markets that are different today after Apple’s ‘It’s Showtime’ event – September 13, 2006
Cramer: Apple’s ‘iTV’ all about ease-of-use; Apple shares are going higher – September 13, 2006
Apple + Living Room = Logical Marriage + Boon for Stockholders – September 13, 2006
The Register: Apple event more like ‘No Show’ than ‘Showtime’ – September 13, 2006
The Telegraph: Steve Jobs’ genius making people desire gadgets for which they have absolutely no use – September 13, 2006
The Guardian: Steve Jobs needs ‘a charisma download, Apple risks being left behind’ – September 13, 2006
Mark Cuban: Things that are special about Apple’s announcements – September 13, 2006
Apple’s ‘iTV’ strategy – September 13, 2006
How will Apple’s ‘iTV’ work? – September 13, 2006
Apple eyes living room market with device codenamed ‘iTV’ – September 12, 2006
Analyst: Apple ‘s iTunes+iPod+iTV model ‘the gold standard for the digital home of the future’ – September 12, 2006
Analyst: Apple ‘s iTunes+iPod+iTV ‘will be hard for other players to match’ – September 12, 2006
Apple gives sneak peek of ‘iTV’ set-top box to debut Q1 2007 (with images) – September 12, 2006
Apple’s QuickTime stream of Steve Jobs special event now live – September 12, 2006
NFL and Apple team up to offer 2006 NFL game highlights via iTunes Store – September 12, 2006
Apple debuts iTunes 7 – September 12, 2006
“and even Apple doesn’t have it right yet, since it’s not appearing until the beginning of 2007”
I suspect the biggest hurdle to this thing being ‘done’ is the ratification of the 802.11n standard, not anything Apple hasn’t been able to do.
from Wikipdeia:
“According to the IEEE 802.11 Working Group Project Timelines,[2] the 802.11n standard is not due for final approval until July 2007.
It has been reported that 802.11n interferes with existing 802.11b and g wireless networks. It has also been reported that the range of the 802.11n has reached up to 1/4 of a mile. Interference on this scale is a major setback for 802.11n”
Whadda ya mean “Apple doesn’t have it right yet?” It was working just fine when Stevo demoed it on-stage.
I’d sure enough be sitting on a spiffy new big screen Mac instead, ya know?
Seth,
Apple can’t make it compatible with Windows Media files – Microsoft refuses to make DRM’d Windows Media files available to Apple.
And Windows Media files are a closed, proprietary format to boot.
so – yeah, not gonna happen..
“…hey Apple, do us all a favor and make it run Windows Media files, will ya??”
Microsoft released Flip for Mac for OS X, which adds WMV components to QuickTime. Just do a couple of installs: one from Apple, and one from Microsoft. At least we know the Apple download won’t infect your machine.
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Unless the big thing is one of the secrets waiting for us in Leopard…
Cringely (http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20060922.html) is betting on iChat via the iTV, where the USB port is for the iSight camera/mic. Videoconferencing with Grandma as he calls it. Guess this fits in with his expectation of an Apple TV that has an iSight and iTV integrated into it.
the other Steve Jobs,
“Microsoft refuses to make DRM’d Windows Media files available to Apple.”
That’s not true. What is true is that Microsoft refuses to make a Mac OS application to playback those DRM’d Windows Media files.
But Apple can write that app if it wanted to by licensing it from MS just the way all those others do.
I hope they DO NOT make it windows compatible. The more cool stuff out there that DOESN’T support WMA, the sooner it will get killed off.
I absolutely LOVE that iTV is available to Windows user. I have failed to reflect on the huge-ness of that fact. Apple will totally invade the living room!
I love it!
Let me clarify… I hope Apple does NOT support WMA file format. Less Microsoft is better.
Rasterbator…
Not wishing to be picky, but Microsoft are about as responsible for Flip4Mac as I am for the engineering at Ferrari.
Flip4Mac actually comes from Telestream, who provided a licence to redistribute Flip4Mac to Microsoft, presumably at some cost to the Redmond Robber Barons. Microsoft had no commitment to improving Windows Media Player on the Mac (not to mention the absurdity of the branding conflict), and certainly no commitment to providing a production workflow solution for the Mac platform; I would assume that Microsoft and Telestream’s agreement probably pays Telestream a fixed annual fee based on projected new Mac CPU sales multiplied by a heavily discounted licence fee, say 2.5 million multiplied by $3 to $4.
Telestream released Flip4Mac back in April 2005 as a low-cost codec plug-in for QuickTime and finally made the basic playback version available for free in January 2006 simultaneously with Microsoft’s re-distribution agreement. All other versions, both playback and production, are only available from Telestream directly.
iTV will be great, already bought vids from the apple store (worked perfectly, movies are great quality)
I will be ordering iTV on day 1!
Re: iTV
I said it before and I’ll say it again:
Leopard will play a huge part in the final feature set of iTV! That is why iTV will not be released until next spring when Leopard is released.
The Top Secret features that make it worth upgrading to Leopard relates in big part to iTV functions.
For some reason no one, not even the genius anals seem to be able to put the pieces to together.
Rock on Steve!
If you have Flip4Mac installed on your Mac you can play Windows Media files even in Front Row. It shouldn’t be that big of a deal to make it work with a set top box. Since the makers of Fli4Mac are now the ‘official’ support for the Mac, maybe they can do something to support Janus DRM encoded files. THAT would be huge for a whole lot of people.
iTV needs some xvid and divx love.
I sent a link to this story to MDN about a week ago – what took so long? I guess they lost it in the email as the thanks went to someone else too!
Months ago NetFlix stated that they would be introducting a set-top box this winter. It would be able to download and hold a few movies. The downloading would happen over night and would basically replace their current thru-the-mail delivery system.
You’d be able to have on your box as many movies as you currently are subscibing to have out at any given time. Once you watch it and erase it the next movie in your queue starts to download.
It all sounded very slick indeed. I wonder if Apple’s announcement changed their plans at all?
The other day I checked out a would-be-competitor (Elgato) that used to offer a similar product to Apple’s new iTV called EyeHome. EyeHome was designed to stream media from the Mac to the TV and the method (system menus) was eerily similar. It appears to be gone from their site. I also recall Apple hired away the president of Elgato a year or so ago. Coincidence? Probably not.
Elgato’s site spoke heavily of future devices using “Universal Plug N Play” (UPNP). I think UPNP will likely be leveraged in iTV along with 802.11n. I’m betting on Front Row being opened up to third parties with the release of Cheetah, and Apple’s Digital Living Room picture will be complete. It will also be consistent with Phil Schiller’s statement to the media after Tiger was released, saying: “Home theatres have too many wires. Apple is all about wireless connectivity and simplicity.”
Cheetah?!?!? Did I miss a memo or sumptin’? I thought Ocelot was next.
“I’m betting on Front Row being opened up to third parties with the release of Cheetah…”
NOTE TO ALL APPLE PROGNOSTICATORS:
The code name “Cheetah” has already been used. It was the first release of OS X (10.0). 10.1 was Puma.
@mark
“…iChat via the iTV, where the USB port is for the iSight camera/mic. “
Just one problem with that, the iSight is firewire.
Oops! I meant Leopard. Thanks for catching that! (blush)
Windows Media files? UGH
Pollute my Mac with THAT?
Flip4Mac works like ANY good Mac software does… it just WORKS! And it works because it’s NOT from Microsoft!
I heard that the internal iSight cameras on all the new MacBooks Pro and No) and iMacs are USB connected… see System Profiler. (If someone would take a screenshot, it would be appreciated.) That’s an interesting shift. I love my FireWire iSight, it’s one of the coolest accessories I’ve ever bought for my Mac, that I actually use.
Apple has exactly the right idea releasing something like the iTV. Simply Connect it to YOUR computer and media systems. If you have a Mac or a PC, a 13″ TV or a 65″ HDTV, it doesn’t matter, it should work. At this point, Windows compatibility is almost mandatory, unless they want to shake out the bugs with a Mac only version first… like the iPod.
Why an iTV vs. and AppleTV? It makes no sense for Apple to get into a commodity business like selling television sets. How many TVs are there? 3″ to 72″ all shapes and sizes in between. How would Apple compete with in that kind of market? It would be a suicide move.
Apple learned their lesson back in the ’90s, when they tried to make and sell EVERY computer peripheral imaginable and nearly drove themselves out of business in the process. People say that Macs were boring beige boxes back then and that’s why they nearly went out of business. But, they sold digital cameras, scanners, printers, etc. and tried to compete with the likes of HP and Epson. THAT was the strategy that nearly did them in. High Mac prices and Windows 3 certainly helped…
BTW: Puttie Tat comes after Leopard.
I haven’t tried it yet but Visual Hub or even Apple’s Compressor should batch convert all my video into a different format. So someone could convert their DVDs to h.264 and literally have all their movies on a home server. WMV might play through Front Row using Flip4Mac and Mpegs should be fine also. iTV + Front Row = practical Media Center.