Going head to head to head. Just rumor of course, but a $99 set top shim would probably be as real as a $99 cell phone, only with Apple wearing the AT&T hat and holding the service contract that amortizes the hardware. Apple is doing just fine with a closed ecosystem and veto power over the apps that volunteers write. They also have the guy and track record to negotiate new models for paid movie and TV content, analogous to the music biz (but different product and model). They are good at selling devices direct to consumer, relatively weak on cloud services, hated by former MP3 player and phone manufacturers. On the other hand, Google just wants to scale up their PC browser based business, and get ads on a billion cell phones and four billion TVs using video as one of their vectors (along with search, maps, mail, etc.). Their model is to use "free" content in the form of Web pages, books, personal information, user generated (or user misappropriated) YouTubish video, and "free" video like Hulu, etc. Nearly zero content creation and licensing cost, but $billions in ad revenue; sweet. If they can commoditize WebM video like MP3 audio, and get iTVs, phones, PC browses to use unprotected WebM video or streaming, and sell all the advertising, they can piddle some of the profit to internet TV, cell phone, etc. manufacturers to make their OS and widget platform the most attractive to build on. In the Apple model, manufacturers play the role of doormats; Google gives them a nice feature and maybe a payoff. The third major "head" is cable operators offering IP video access to their subscription content on par with their QAM service to proprietary STBs (requiring both DOCSIS and TV $ubscription$). They benefit from device and content providers all using a standard protected video format they can safely deliver to as many devices as possible without cutting themselves off at the knees by allowing unprotected video to eliminate the need for cable TV subscriptions. They currently control most of the content revenue, advertising revenue, and last mile IP network. Hmmm; who to bet on? Kilroy Hughes From: opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of James Fancher Sent: Tuesday, June 01, 2010 10:35 AM To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [opendtv] Google and Apple TV Did I miss the discussion of this? http://tech.spreadit.org/apple-tv-iphone-os-4-cost-99/ looks like google and apple will be going head to head for IP TV - I would say the next phase of change in the TV market has started or is about to start No price point for the Google TV box that I found but at $99 the apple product will soon be hooked to my TV ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways: - Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.