“I have a new theory about Apple. No, it’s really a reverse engineering of their larger mission, a unified theory of Apple that explains everything the company does,” Mike Elgan writes for Computerworld.
“Here it is: Apple’s mission is to replace old-and-busted content-consumption products and services with new-hotness Apple solutions,” Elgan writes. “The company is like a shark in the water, seeking out weak and wounded content-delivery systems.”
Elgan writes, “The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that ‘people familiar with the matter’ say Apple is working on ‘new technology to deliver video to televisions” and may “launch a subscription TV service.’
“The article says that former Apple CEO and current Chairman Steve Jobs ‘often criticizes, in public and in private, the experience of watching TV as clumsy and bad for consumers” and says that the “existing system, where consumers get content from different cable and satellite providers that use different technologies, makes it difficult to innovate,'” Elgan writes. “Translation: ‘We are going to kill cable TV.'”
Read more in the full article here.
Related article:
Apple working on new TV technology, say sources – August 26, 2011
Apple world’s most valuable company. Its next trick? TV – August 9, 2011
Analyst: Apple expected to launch 3 HDTV models by March 2012 – August 1, 2011
Analyst: Apple’s entrance into HDTV market could boost market cap by $100 billion – July 11, 2011
in a world with no comcast? yes.
I would just be happy for them to figure out a way for me to watch the NFL game of my choice on Sunday afternoon on my TV without having to buy and install a stupid ass dish or watching a postage stamp size pirate feed on my laptop.
Unless Apple buys a delivery system, such as Sprint, Dish, or use the ‘White Spaces’ of spectrum, they will not kill off cable.
They may offer a different way to get content THROUGH cable, or work with them to sell a better set top box, but as long as cable controls the delivery, Apple cannot “kill” cable TV.
They could, however, kill (or at least wound) Motorola’s set top business to strike back at Google.
That would be sweet.
And IFF Apple cleans up its act in most countries, where the AppleTV #2 isn’t even available, let alone decent content (no TV Shows, no Movies !!!).
You are so right. I got rid of cable television about a year ago yet I still pay my cable company a nice chunk of change every month for my internet. If more people dump cable TV, the cable companies are going to jack up the rate on their internet service even more to make up for the lost revenue. The real key is the delivery system. Until we have real competition in the truly high-speed space the consumer will continue to be held hostage by the cable companies.
You are spot on with your assumption about the current content delivery systems and the internet. Less computation means less choices and generally higher prices for consumers.
We ARE headed to ALL services being delivered via IP, be it a cable modem, dsl modem, or thru some Wi-Fi. As soon as business embrace this idea, and they will, being dragged kicking and screaming into the reality of it… then we actually may see internet in the US that rivals other nations for price and speed…
Until then we are stuck with overpriced, oversold, and underperforming internet service, and worthless bundled TV offerings.
I cut my cable at home about 2 years ago and haven’t looked back since. I’d be happy to PAY for TV, but only under 2 circumstances:
The first is that I get to choose exactly what channels I want to receive and pay for… NO BUNDLING.
The second is that I get ALL the channels, including top tier pay channels like HBO, but I only get charged for the amount of TV that I actually watch. Kind of like water and electricity, and soon to be internet.
Like either one is ever going to happen…
That is likely what Apple plans to do.
Maybe, maybe not.
http://www.cultofmac.com/thanks-to-super-wifi-your-next-macbook-or-ipad-might-be-able-to-connect-to-your-home-wifi-up-to-60-miles-away/106564
The day I trash my cable TV remote is the day my life is complete.
Nice prospect: trahs cable TV remote and die…
We cut the cord in January. Our HDTV has an Apple TV (black streaming version) and an old white Macbook connected. The Apple TV gets all the current TV we’re interested in, plus Netflix and Youtube. The Macbook gets everything else on the internet. There are iPhone remote apps for both. There’s not much I miss about old fashioned TV.
I’m heading that direction myself.
If I were Apple I would:
* Buy Time Warner
* Buy a network ( NBC, or CBS, or FOX, etc)
* Offer subscriptions to shows on my network
* Kill download limits on my ISP
* Tell the other networks and ISPs to join in or die, and tell them I have no intention of keeping the network or TW once the situation has reached something reasonable and looks like it will stay that way
they have 46 billion in the bank. they don’t need to buy any company. they can create their own delivery system by using the old analog freq.
$46 billion? Did we lose $30 billion last night?
No, buy Disney and get ABC, ESPN, Touchstone, Pixar, and more.
Buy Sprint/Clearwire and get WiMax.
Game over!
Bullets to put in the gun to kill cable TV:
1. A la carte selection (you don’t have to subsidize Home Shopping Network, Al Jazerra or the deer-hunting channel)
2. No advertising on channels you pay for (this is how it was for Cable TV when it started). Hype between hour marks (upcoming shows, etc.) is OK
3. Ability to access ALL major sporting events in real time
4. Free local channels
5. No “pop-up” advertising or hype during programming
What in Hell is wrong with The Deer Hunt’n Channel, you yeller-bellied, toothbrush-using nincompoop!
+1
However I realize that premium shows (i.e. Mad Men) cost a lot to produce in these cases ONLY I would pay a bit more than current prices.
So basically a massively expensive cable bill?
Cable didn’t run commercials because it cost them very little to basically rebroadcast an exiting signal. That changed over 20 years ago now they have to pay the companies who own the channels they carry
You obviously have no idea how much money networks and cable channels make in ad revenue. Without ad revenue, a subscription only model would be so expensive that either no one would buy it or the quality of shows would plummet.
They will create a TV show store where anyone can create a channel and get paid via iAds or by subscription or both. Think about it. My alma mater doesn’t have a nationwide TV deal so I can’t watch every game on TV. After the TV show store debuts, iCAN!
This idea makes sense in light of the App Store and the SDK system for iPads & iPhones. AND it is so far from the pack that it will catch them all unawares. It might be a part of our new TV world. Anything to get rid of advertising @ 30% of content would be a plus.
Content and distribution via iCloud, and the app controls the gate. Simple.
Demonstrated to great effect by the iTunes 2011 London concert series in July.
Brilliant.
The silver bullet is new streaming tech that uses less bandwidth, without reductions in viewing quality. You will see. There is more to the new data center than just storage.
Apple has as much chance of killing cable TV as BBM has of killing iMessage. In other words zero.
The problem that will persist (and the only reason I haven’t cut the cord) is access to live sporting events. The networks and cable are in bed with the pro leagues and other sporting events. I mean, I have the MLB app for my iPhone and iPad, Time Warner Crapple, but can’t watch a local game, why is that???
Agreed. Sporting events are a big hurdle. I went from cable to satellite in order to see Cincinnati Reds games on Fox Sports Ohio, but I can’t watch games on MLB at bat 2011 when I’m out of the house on my iPad because of blackout restrictions, which makes no sense. That kind of clunky experience needs to be fixed but I don’t see how Apple can do it.
I love how all these comments about killing cable, buying comms companies or setting up their own only concern America. You do realise that the world spins about it’s axis, not Boise, Idaho, don’t you?
We welcome your comments about technology and content as it applies in your own culture- what’s new where you live? 😉
T hought the world spun around Chicken Creek, Oklahoma.
Anyway, all we’re sayin’ is that cable sucks.
Check out Lightsquared. Apple could become it’s own private label ISP. The rest would be history, as they say
“Check out Lightsquared. Apple could become it’s own private label ISP. ”
Apple isn’t that stupid.
Senator Grassley wants to shut Lightsquared down as a threat to National Security.
These days, everything is a threat to national security.
Especially progress.
I wonder if people are ever going to get a clue that the greatest threat to “national security” is those in power.
“Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?”
IT’S ALL ABOUT THE MONEY.
Bingo.
From Lightsquared’s website:
“Today wireless communications in the U.S. are dominated by a handful of cellular telephone companies. With the creation of LightSquared and its wholesale-only business model, America will finally see greater competition in the wireless marketplace.”
It would shatter the existing telecom monopolies. Alternative cell carriers, TV providers, radio providers, and ISPs would pop up overnight and grow like weeds. But with all the money that the old, entrenched content monopolists “lobby” politicians with to make things go in their favour, we simply can’t have that, and Lightsquared gets declared a threat to national security.
i.e. a threat to the corporations that bribe Senator Grassley, and so an indirect threat to his precious, precious wallet.
While there does(did?) exist a clash between LS and the GPS spectrum, LS isn’t going anywhere until the clash is actually fixed(this sums the whole situation up pretty well). So the supposed danger of it going online and wreaking havoc with GPS signals is bullshit because it isn’t going online as long as that’s an issue. FUD, anyone?
I would drop the cable TV part of my service in a HEARTBEAT. Close to doing it now anyway. $60 for what, 7 decent channels? The rest suck dick for skittles.
Wanted Dead (forget Alive): Cable TV. Go for it, Apple!
No, the center of the universe is Turkey Scratch, AR.
Ask Levon Helm…..
I don’t care how Apple kills cable tv as long as they kill it. Cable operators have been riding the gravy train for far too long. It’s definitely time for a change, and Apple is just the company to bring it.
Not convinced, I love Apple products but the iTunes music store has not killed off the cd, it’s nearly there but with an inferior quality product.
If they start on TV using the same model are you going to be happy watching SDTV rather than HDTV? Not everyone enjoys sufficient bandwidth to get HDTV via IPTV. To achieve this I believe delivery of this product would have to be via existing cable and satellite services as well.
Man it would be sweet!
But as others have pointed out, it’s not gonna happen for live TV (sports etc) until they build a new infrastructure.
I think it’s more likely that Apple would buy a bunch of cell towers (also very unlikely) before they’d lay a bunch of new cable all around the world.
Alas, maybe the key is to just stop watching sports all together… Except for NFL on Sundays (over the air).
Sending TV shows and movies is easy.
Would Apple be content to to compete just in the NTSC region or would they want to compete world wide? Cable TV is really a North American phenomenon.
“…where consumers get content from different cable and satellite providers that use different technologies, makes it difficult to innovate,’”
Apple reduced music from vinyl. CD tape to 0’s and 1’s.
Guess what Apple ti do with TV, its not kill cable, its to make all methods of reception the same.
My cable company sprinkles desirable channels among tons of garbage. They are are careful to put like-minded programming, such as the various History channels, Smithsonian, for example, in different packages, as a tactic to force those viewers to go for the highest rate level. It’s not just the cost, it’s the horribly messy, irritating, insulting, predatory cable experience, so to get what you want you have to suffer.
I recall, similarly, the way it used to be with music: to get one good song and one so-so one, you had to suffer ten filler cuts. I also recall Apple changed that, and now accessing music for me is a pleasure.
“Apple’s mission is to replace old-and-busted content-consumption products and services with new-hotness Apple solutions” …
I do NOT believe that Apple’s mission is to replace consumer products with better consumer products, because that’s an unfocused goal that could take the company anywhere — such as purchasing Netflix or developing a space-age television set.
I perceive the company’s mission is to integrate computing power into the lives of consumers; to magnify their abilities, facilitate their communication and contribute to their enjoyment of life.
Integrating computing power into the lives of consumers requires, first and foremost, mobile computing — which is Apple’s particular specialty. It also requires an intuitive and easy method for humans to interface with their computers: the mouse (Mac), touch/finger (iPad), voice (iPhone) … later, heads-up (virtual) displays … and someday brain implants that permit thoughts to be translated into computing commands.
Apple’s future is already charted, and the task for Steve’s successors is to execute the vision of fully integrating computing into the human experience: a truly never-ending mission.
“We are going to kill cable TV” means everyone will have AppleTV connected to their computers, not 2 million households with $2000 big-screen TV sets manufactured by Apple.
Most moderate- and high-income families already have fairly new, large and expensive TVs, and they are not likely to replace them when they can get most of the features they need from a $99 box measuring 4x4x1″.
The fact is I don’t want Apple to become the new TWC or COMCAST or DirecTV bleeding me dry for subscription fees each month.
In this day and age of IP why do we need a middle-man raking off fees? Why can’t I buy my content directly from the production company and stream it from their server to my Internet-connected viewing device?
It would be a simple enough app to set up accounts at the content providers I want to purchase and view.
That way, new independent production companies can produce original content and sell direct on the Internet.
The comments here about cable companies riding the gravy train for too long are just too ridiculous. Are you people even considering that you would not have high-speed Internet access if cable companies hadn’t run wires to your house, or installed equipment, or maintained it? Do any of you even remember what it was like to have only 4-6 channels before cable?
Yep, I remember. It was pretty much like having 7 to 9 watchable channels now with cable, except that it was free instead of $60 per month.
Really? We would not have high speed internet access without cable companies? Please slap me for being so ungrateful! Have you ever heard of WiMax? It’s wireless communications with a range of 20 to 30 miles at speeds up to 1 Gbit/second. It exists in many places around the world as a commercially viable service. The miles and miles of fiber optics still being built out by cable and phone companies is obsolete before it is even finished. If anything that stranded investment in obsolete technology by some very powerful players will ensure substandard service for years to come.