[opendtv] Re: Does Apple's Tim Cook Want an Apple Television?
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 9 Dec 2012 12:51:58 -0500
At 6:25 PM -0500 12/8/12, Albert Manfredi wrote:
Today, even the real-time broadcast content is a lot more plentiful
than the 4-5 channels you mention (10X more, in my case, all
"free"), but that's not even the point. No one needs to watch in
real time. No one needs to be constrained to those channels of
content. And there is nothing new to invent in terms of search
engines either. If the content is made available on the web, search
engines should certainly be able to find it. It's only a matter of
tweaking technology we already have. I can get far more content than
I could possibly watch, Craig. All with existing search engines.
Really?
And how would you characterize this content?
- New original programming with high entertainment value that
attracts audiences measured in millions of homes?
- Retreaded high entertainment value content off the broadcast networks?
- Low value (throw away) content with poor production values - in
this I include reality TV produced for the broadcast networks and
many cable networks?
- News and related information programming?
- Live sports?
As for program discovery, I sense that you don't spend much time
using program guides. Obviously you don't subscribe to cable or DBS,
so it is likely that you rarely if ever use the EPGs that are used by
85% or more of U.S. homes. You might be using one of the web based
program guides like Zap2It - these guides are just electronic
versions of the old newspaper inserts, with some limited search
ability.
But the real laugher here is your comment that "there is nothing new
to invent in terms of search engines." Web search engines do a pretty
decent job of finding stuff when you know what you are looking for.
As for discovery of programming, they pretty much suck. And only a
handful of people - like you - have full web search capabilities
associated with their TVs.
I was looking at several of the Smart TVs being offered this
Christmas. They generally can hook up with Netflix, YouTube,
Hulu/Hulu Plus and Amazon, but none of them offer anything that you
could call Internet browsing and search. In essence, they are
designed to let you access libraries of Off network TV content, and
even here the search capabilities within these walled gardens are
very limited.
Bottom line Bert, YOU are not the typical American TV viewer. You are
ALSO NOT the typical user of FOTA TV - a large percentage of FOTA TV
homes DO NOT have Internet access.
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2012/0824/Got-broadband-Access-now-extends-to-94-percent-of-Americans
Not only do more Americans than ever have access to broadband
services, but more are actually taking advantage of it by subscribing
to a service in the home. Sixty-four percent of those with access
opted to pay for a service in 2011, compared with 62 percent in 2010,
the FCC report found.
...
Gaps in adoption rates are most notable among income levels,
education, and race, with 70 percent of whites subscribing to
broadband in the home compared with 54 percent of blacks and 51
percent of Hispanics, according to Pew Internet data.
And
http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/164911-over-the-air-tv-viewers-are-up
The survey also found that minority and low-income homes are more
reliant on over-the-air broadcasting than the general population.
Minorities make up 40 percent of homes with TVs who don't buy pay-TV
services, the survey said.
"Lower-income households also trend towards broadcast-only
television, with 23% of homes with an annual income under $30,000
receiving TV signals solely over-the-air. In comparison, 11% of homes
with incomes greater than $30,000 rely exclusively on broadcast
signals," the survey said.
Or you can just type "digital divide" into your search engine and
start exploring the more than 30 million hits...
To be fair, I doubt that these are the folks that Apple might be
targeting with a TV product. Then again, they would be wasting their
time targeting you as well...
In short, it's not so much that I disagree with the supposed
"vision" that people expect from Apple (I did read the article you
pointed out). It's that I scoff at the cult guru mentality of the
public and the trade press. You know, just like cult members who
hang by every syllable uttered by their favorite charlatan. Moonies,
what have you. They have their mouths gaping wide open, waiting for
Apple to lead them to the promised land. Instead of engaging their
atrophied gray matter.
You mean like the "grey matter" at Sony?
From the NBC interview with Tim Cook:
BRIAN WILLIAMS:
It sounded to me that you and I grew up the same American life, kind
of grindingly simple and normal American middle class household --
when you and I as kids would go to a neighbor's house and see, under
their new TV, Sony Trinitron, that would tell us something instantly.
And you're smiling. And that brand lasted up until -- Walkman,
Discman. But then, fast-forward to today, it's less meaningful. How
do you not become Sony, with all apologies to Sony?
Or perhaps you are of the opinion that Windows 7 and Android
represent the kind of innovation that will result in Apple becoming
the next Sony...
The only issue that seems to keep popping up in the media and trade
press, is whether Apple can continue to be the wellspring of
innovation that has allowed them to become the most valuable company
in the world.
It would be nice if Apple's competitors started using their
"atrophied grey matter."
Everything I read says you continue to be wrong on this, for as many
years as you've been repeating it. People watch TV while they browse
the web on their tablets. But even that misses the point. First,
let's get this out of the way. TV might be low margin, but so are
toasters and frying pans. Doesn't translate to "no one wants them."
Yes, people do all kinds of things while the TV provides background
noise. And yes everyone wants a TV. The fact that they have become
brain dead, low margin, commodities speaks volumes about the CE
industry - they can't think outside of the (TV) box.
More to the point, the consumer SHOULD NOT HAVE TO go to the trouble
of dedicating a PC to the TV. I only did this because I could see
that the CE companies are (evidently?) on the take, behaving like
half-wit incompetent bozos who can't come up with a decent connected
TV product. Like it's something so incredibly elusive, even as every
Tom, Dick, and Harry around them is watching video, browsing the
web, getting the latest news and weather, and even checking their
bank accounts, on tablets and smartphones.
You're getting close to the crux of the matter here. The congloms and
their partners in the MVPD and CE industry have spent most of the
past two decades trying to slow down the transition to the new
digital infrastructure that is emerging today. And, unlike the music
industry, they have been highly successful at protecting their
lucrative oligopolies.
Few companies are willing and/or able to eat their children. Playing
defense may protect your legacy business - for a while - but it
almost always prevents you from creating the next big thing. In the
late '90s Apple had little left to defend - they became what they are
today through innovation, building a world class supply chain, and
continuously eating their kids.
For you, MVPD addict, perhaps. For me, I don't see that. What I do
see is that the congloms allow me, to watch TV as VOD, rather than
by appointment, without even having to bother with a PVR. They also
have special features available on their sites that did not exist
before, interviews with cast members, what have you. What's more, I
can watch TV from just about any country in the world, live or
recorded, hampered only by the occasional desire by the
international networks to artificially limit their own viewership.
I'm no addict. I watch far less TV than the average American and
could care less about what the networks are producing today or the
reruns you can catch via the Internet. Cable News and Sports make up
the vast majority of what I watch; and I get most of my news via a
web browser.
So it's unfathomable to me how anyone can be so clueless as to think
that TV is like it was in the '50s. If people really yhink that way,
someone ought to give them a swift kick in the pants to see if that
wakes them out of their catatonic stupor, eh?
You are right.
TV is nothing like it was in the '50s. when a new medium was being invented.
Today is is a vast catatonic wasteland...
The new Pravda.
Regards
Craig
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