And also:
An Apple TV With a Blu-ray Player? By Saul Hansell Tags: Apple, macworld, video Rumors are flying fast and furious over what Steve Jobs will pull out of his blue-jean pocket a week from Tuesday at his annual speech at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco. These include a movie rental service for iTunes, a super small notebook computer perhaps with a solid-state hard drive, a notebook docking station, and new features for the iPhone. Shaw Wu, an analyst with American Technology Research, suggested that Apple will start shipping some computers with Blu-ray high-definition DVD drives. By itself, adding Blu-ray to Macs is nothing more than continuing to add features to justify the Mac price premium. But there is another move that Apple could make that could well be a game changer: introducing a new version of Apple TV with a built in Blu-ray player. Separately, neither Apple TV nor Blu-ray players have excited consumers. People have been wary of the fight between Blu-ray and rival HD DVD players, worrying that they will end up owning the disk equivalent of a useless Betamax player. And Apple TV just didn't seem to have all that many useful things you could do with it. For that matter, online video rentals have been around for several years, by way of Movielink, and also have attracted very few users. The hottest movie download service in fact may be Xbox Live, which makes sense because the game machines are already hooked up to televisions. Imagine, however, if Apple introduced this product, say for $399: It plays Blu-ray disks. It lets you buy or rent movies and TV programs from the Internet. It automatically downloads and plays free video (and audio) podcasts. And it brings your iTunes music collection to your living room. This combination of features may be enough of a package that consumers will feel they aren't taking too much risk buying one. And Apple's brand may also reassure them. The company is not only the sexiest name in consumer electronics right now, but it also has a respectable track record of being able to negotiate with Hollywood to bring content to its devices. (The first version of Apple TV was a bit of an exception). Apple's clout might also help tip the now-tied race between Blu-ray and HD DVD. (Apple has been on the sidelines, but is a Blu-ray sympathizer. It serves on the Blu-ray advisory committee. And Disney, of which Mr. Jobs is the largest shareholder, backs Blu-ray.) There are two other features of this product I'm imagining I'd like to see, but I think are less likely: streaming video and a commitment to advertiser-supported free video. Apple has focused on video downloads, in part because the quality is better than streaming and they fit into its iTunes model. But the first Apple TV does have streaming for movie trailers. Adding a broader streaming capability would expand programming choices and make the device useful for live and very recent content, like news and sports. Apple has also not been serious about exploring ad-supported video, but this too is inevitable. For everyone who wants to watch "Heroes" without commercials for $1.99 an episode, there have to be 10 or 100 who will put up with commercials to see it free. Such a device could also have a TV tuner, a CableCard slot and act as a digital video recorder. But my guess is that Mr. Jobs would find that this makes it far too complex and he will leave these functions to the cable set top boxes. I don't know what Mr. Jobs will pull out of his pocket. But I do know that he has a three-decade track record of picking when a technology is ready to enter the mainstream. Blu-ray and Internet video combined may be at just such a moment. Dave Crozier _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[EMAIL PROTECTED] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
