How Apple took the lead in the battle for the global digital living room

Apple Online Store“Apple’s tightly integrated software and content ecosystem is the template by which a UBS team led by Maynard Um judged the key players in the battle they see ‘brewing among the mega caps to own the consumer’ in what they call the global digital living room,” Philip Elmer-DeWitt reports for Fortune.

MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s is almost always “the template,” see: Apple ][, Macintosh, iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad, to name just a few.

P.E.D. reports, “‘We believe the ‘holy grail’ for these vendors,’ they write in a 48-page report issued Friday, ‘is to provide users with seamless access (eventually through the Internet or so-called ‘cloud’) to all types of content across all types of devices (anything with a screen) anywhere and at all times. It is what we dub the Global Digital Living Room. Unlike in past years, technology and ecosystems are now enabling this to be a reality. While the race is still in the early stages, we believe Apple, Google, and Microsoft are the early leaders in the group — each with strengths and weaknesses in different areas — and a number of ‘dark horses’ including Sony, Amazon, and Samsung.'”

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P.E.D. reports, “The report’s summary of how Apple took the high ground: ‘With more than 160 million iTunes accounts, Apple has built a strong user base… With iTunes, Apple has created a hub that users use to store, transfer, sync and manage all of their content across multiple devices. The ability for a user to purchase one song and then be able to play that song on their PC’s, tablet, smartphone, TV, and music player is a very attractive value proposition for iTunes users. While other competitors (such as Google and Microsoft) are not far behind, in our opinion, no other company currently offers as much content that is as seamlessly integrated on such attractive platforms as Apple does.'”

There’s much more in the full article – recommended – here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Jersey_Trader,” Dan K.,” and “David E.” for the heads up.]

20 Comments

  1. from what i remember, itunes was the first online music store you could trust not to go belly up. there were music stores in the 1990’s but they all went bust and the music you bought was useless

  2. from what i remember, itunes was the first online music store you could trust not to go belly up. there were music stores in the 1990’s but they all went bust and the music you bought was useless

  3. Live television production is getting cheaper to large sports institutions like MLB, NFL, even the NHL.

    When they see that they can have all the television revenue one day, and maintain a direct relationship with their fan-base, they’ll start making that transition.

    Can you imagine watching a game on an Apple TV, seeing an unobtrusive bouncing pizza hut icon in the corner to let you order a pizza (with both Apple and NFL taking a cut of the order?)

    Future.

  4. Live television production is getting cheaper to large sports institutions like MLB, NFL, even the NHL.

    When they see that they can have all the television revenue one day, and maintain a direct relationship with their fan-base, they’ll start making that transition.

    Can you imagine watching a game on an Apple TV, seeing an unobtrusive bouncing pizza hut icon in the corner to let you order a pizza (with both Apple and NFL taking a cut of the order?)

    Future.

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