“Apple Computer Inc., at the forefront of innovation in the digital arena, is expected to release products and announce more Hollywood partnerships next week. Credited with ushering online music into the mainstream with the iPod and iTunes, it now seeks to make online television and movies a regular feature as well,” Ellen Lee reports for The San Francisco Chronicle.
“It’s still a headache to move digital media around the home, but 2007 could see some help for the weary,” Lee reports. “Apple, which is expected to make a series of new-product announcements at its annual Macworld Expo next week, plans to introduce in early 2007 a device, code-named iTV, that will enable consumers to transfer movies and television shows from computers to television sets. Other makers of consumer electronics and software are expected to follow suit.”
Lee reports, “More people will watch videos on the go this year, especially as cell phone carriers such as Verizon link up with popular online video sites such as YouTube and Revver, and as Apple strikes deals with more Hollywood studios and networks to offer additional movie and television show downloads for the iPod.”
Full article here.
Related article:
Disney sells nearly 500,000 movies via Apple’s iTunes Store in less than two months – November 09, 2006
Fox movies, including ‘Star Wars’ franchise, coming soon to Apple’s iTunes Store? – November 08, 2006
Disney’s remarkable 1st week iTunes movies sales should have studios clambering aboard Apple train – September 20, 2006
Disney sells 125,000 movie downloads via Apple’s iTunes Store in first week – September 19, 2006
MacWorld cannot come early enough…
iTV sounds great, but how many of us have digital tv/movie files stored in high enough resolution to look decent on a 32/37/42/50in HDTV? Signing up more studios is also great news, but it wouldn’t address the video-quality issue. Or am i missing something?
to Posner:
You’re not missing anything. This is how innovation happens. Baby steps and early adoption.
I have a HDTV EyeTV 500 and have plenty of stuff that looks great on Front Row and will on iTV (which I think will be called Front Row).
rab,
right you are!
Internet connections are getting faster, video resolutions higher, processors faster, and battery life longer.
Apple is positioning itself well for the future, the near future that is.
Only 1 week until Christmas!
One foot in front of the other dude, it doesn’t all happen at once.
Convergence takes careful planning.
Ipod didn’t have the iTunes Store when the Pod was first released.
Look where it is 5 years later. An extremely popular product
outside of the mac fanboy circle. (please, no circle jerk comments)
Oh, OK, if you must
OK, I *get* positioning for the future, but the iPod was a compelling product before iTunes Store because most folks had tons of great digital music sitting around in the form of CD’s (or from other sources). In contrast, iTV has no advantage over a DVD player UNLESS one has lots of high-quality video already stored on a computer hard drive. I think it would be great if video download quality ratchets up that quickly, but in the meantime I will leave this one for the early adopters. (unless, of course, there are cool additional features not yet revealed…)