“The newest Apple TV, which the company unveiled (Sept. 9)… adds an app store, so anyone can now build an app and potentially reach millions of people in their living rooms,” Dan Frommer writes for Quartz. “Apple thinks this will dramatically change how people watch television at home. ‘We believe the future of television is apps,’ Apple CEO Tim Cook proclaimed.”
“Perhaps that’s true. But don’t expect a living-room app store to lead to some great, rapid democratization of content, or an indie-video renaissance,” Frommer writes. “What you watch probably won’t change much. And, bigger-picture, this feels like a “plan b” move on Apple’s behalf. While a bunch of apps and the ability to search across them could eventually piece together Hollywood’s TV shows and movies… it’s hardly the most elegant solution to an admittedly complex problem.”
“Meanwhile, new forms of video content have had more than a decade to erupt on the web. And while some interesting new categories have emerged—such as watching people play video games—the heavy majority of streaming bandwidth is still going to Netflix, which is as mainstream Hollywood as it gets,” Frommer writes. “It’s hard to see Apple TV changing this dramatically… What’s more likely, if ‘apps as channels’ takes off, is a shuffling of business models… Deutsche Bank analyst Bryan Kraft thinks new entrants, ‘particularly Apple,’ could even grow the number of pay TV subscribers. And new streaming providers won’t offer physical DVRs, ‘which means advertising will be protected during time-shifted viewing.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: If Apple can entice Apple TV users with free samples of compelling content (trailers), especially for TV series, they certainly can grow the number of pay TV subscribers. We await the details and launch of Apple’s skinny bundle(s) with bated breath.
Content producers should get to work then on producing their own apps… We’ll make a folder of them on our iOS devices and it’ll look and act just like the channel lineup… – MacDailyNews Take, April 11, 2011