Why the New Apple TV Isn’t Something I’ll Be Watching

Why the New Apple TV Isn’t Something I’ll Be Watching by Darrell Etherington (theappleblog.com)

Call me old-fashioned, but I like archiving my material and I like to have it available whenever I want to review it, or just revisit a favorite scene to make sure I remember it correctly.

Yes, I think you are old-fashioned. Most people I know rent movies from Netflix or Red Box. They don’t buy. Why pay for something that sits on a shelf gathering dust until the next time I get an urge to watch it?

The point of the Apple TV is that you can stream/watch shows the day after they are aired and movies the same day they are released on DVD. Yes, it’s limited to only two networks (for TV shows) at this time but I expect that to change. I have Netflix and usually have to wait a year before I can stream TV shows.   As for Netflix streaming movies – few and far between with the same day releases.

Of course, I do think that this incarnation of the Apple TV is still lacking. I would much prefer 1080p HD movies and 99 cents for movie rentals and TV show purchases.

In the end, I think Netflix has the best chance of winning this battle if they can accelerate the pace at which they get same day DVD releases and television show into the Instant Queue. The one feature Netflix has is ubiquity — TiVo, Roku, televisions, Wii, PS3 etc.

The best comment was by Jan Swesey:

As with most things, something is good or bad depending on whether we think it will make our lives easier and more simple or save us money. We all love tools that enhance our lives. The internet exists and I love it. It gives me most of the information that I want, when ever I want it with out having to get into the car to get it.
What companies are looking for are ways to make the internet make money for them. Apple has been working on this for a very long time. No one seems to have mentioned the fact that Apple has been building a HUGE server farm in the SE of the USA. I met a sales man from Seattle that works for the company that is selling the hardware server modules to Apple and is working on getting the server farm installed and running.
He was very impressed with all the tech and the speed and price and size that is being committed to by Apple, for this farm. As I have said this server farm is supposed to be huge. Now for my point.
Please keep in mind that Apple is all about where it WANTS TO BE and not about where it is. Nothing that Apple produces in the way of a product should be seen as a thing in it’s own right, but a part of an expanding whole. The Apple TV is just such an item. Rather then worry about what it will let you do to day, rather think about what it will let you do tomorrow. When I hear people talk about Apples products it sounds so much like the “poem of the blind men and the elephant”. Every one touches a different part of the elephant and thinks that it is a different thing all together. The key thing about Apple and all this stuff about the internet and all of these electronic devices is the term: Disintermediation, the removal of the middle man. The real question is what is the WHOLE system that Apple is currently building and who’s lunch will be eaten by the final system when it is done. Right now it is the publishing industry ie., magazines, newspapers, books and text books that is under attack. Soon with all the arsenal of e-products that Apple will be introducing and enhancing with software updates, it looks like the Video Delivery industry is in Apples cross hairs. The question is not whether the Video/Movie industry will fall to “disintermediation” but what Apple will have to do to scoop up all their lunch money and call it their own. When we look at music it seems so inevitable. In retrospect, what else will seem so INEVITABLE? This article is not written by a Astro Physicist looking through a massive telescope at the heavens. It was written by a five year old looking at an ant through a small plastic handheld magnifying glass. Apple is all about the cosmos. Raise your sights gentlemen.

Author: Khürt Williams

A human who works in information security and enjoys photography, Formula 1 and craft ale. #nobridge