Apple's new iTV
Steve Jobs made several announcements yesterday announcing new parts of the company's product line. In addition to the expected and usual enhancements to iPods (Nanos in different color, smaller Shuffles), he also made the long-awaited statement about how his new deal with Disney would shape out in Appleland (Steve Jobs was recently appointed to the Disney board and is currently the largest shareholder). Apple will, as anticipated, begin to sell movies through iTunes, initially all from Disney.
The bigger announcement, however, was a prerelease teaser of a new device under development called an iTv. This small box plugs into a television set and using wi-fi, takes content from a networked computer and displays it on the TV.
At first glance, this sounds like a minor geek thing, but it is not. The iTV box is squarely in the killing zone of upcoming home media wars. The Internet has proven itself as a content distribution device, yet most people balk at using a computer like a television. There's a geeky, teenage feel to watching a DVD on your laptop, no matter how big the screen is. Hence the iTV. It could easily become the crossover device that will tie together distribution channels and entertainment, and oh, by the way, disintermediating two particularly noxious, consumer-unfriendly industries, cable television and telephone companies, both of whom are counting on big future bucks by selling movies and pay-per-view over their respective cabling.
Posted on September 13, 2006
