[opendtv] Re: News: Apple's television could offer superior picture quality with advanced backlighting

  • From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2012 11:35:56 -0500

At 4:56 AM -0500 1/22/12, Albert Manfredi wrote:
One wonders how it is that Craig doesn't see Apple attempting to do the very same thing. One wonders why it is that when TV networks want to decide what pipes get to distribute their content, this is bad, but when Apple wants to control content distribution, hardware, interfaces, and software, this is good.

There is almost nothing that Apple offers that you cannot access on other platforms.

The reality is that Apple adds value via their ecosystem. Some people object to Apple's role as curator of Apps, and other ways that they manage their ecosystem. If you don;t want to deal with this there is Android, Windows Mobile, Amazon, etc.

The reality is that a very large number of people see value in this, and the way that they can leverage the content Apple makes available across multiple devices.

Apple announces earning for the latest quarter tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Who says CE vendors should collude with content owners or with by-subscription distribution pipes? That's exactly what I object to. And the best you can do is offer up a company that does this and a whole lot more, as an example of virtue. Amazing.

It's not collusion. It's a matter of survival as digital technology finally overcomes the power of one of the most powerful oligopolies on the planet.

Did you notice how the politicians backed down on SOPA and PIPA? These bills are yet another payback to the media conglomerates that keep these politicians in power.

You really need to focus on the real problem - government/industry collusion that allows these oligopolies to exist in the first place.


CE vendors, when operating in the US, should at least try to be as independent as they appear to successfully be in Europe. There's no reason that a TV vendor should try to sucker its customers into a closed ecosystem, to be successful. Why don't they instead work on offering useful, flexible, unique platforms, which can access the numerous portals already out there, with clever and intuitive GUIs of their own creation? Why should they all flock to a solution, like Google TV for instance, just to make it easy for content owners to shut them out?

I'l leave that one for Mike, since he is well aware of the institutional issues that have prevented the Asian CE vendors from becomming the next Apple or Google...


The Apple ecosystem is "less closed" than many of the current
content ecosystems:

That sounds lamely defensive. If a single company wants to control every aspect of the viewing experience, as I described above, from content to all the hardware and software, pointing to MVPDs and saying "they're bad too" is hardly a credible defense.

Apple does not control the content. It is trying to license it just an any other would be distributor.

Look what is happening to Netflix. They are about to be strangled as the media congloms raise prices to keep Netflix from becoming a viable alternative to the MVPDs.

Craig seems unable to reach any semblance of objectivity in this topic. My position is consistently opposed to walled gardens. Yes, even closed off game consoles. Craig seems unable to perceive a world in which one can function without walled gardens.

Maybe when Bert finally comes to grips with what a walled garden really is, he will understand just how objective I have been all along.

The only credibility that Bert brings to the discussion is that he refuses to pay his monthly tithe to the MVPDs, and media oligopolies that operate the REAL walled gardens.

Regards
Craig


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