Apple's recent announcement of their iTV* system, along with
their entry into the movie download market, is aimed to show that
they are serious about wanting to be at the center of home
entertainment.
As with the iPod and the
iTunes Store, they're not the first to market. They're also not
the only ones; Amazon.com currently offers downloads of movies, for
example.
However, Apple knows something that Amazon and the others don't
- in order to get people interested in these downloadable movies,
there has to be a simple, cost-effective way for them to watch them
on their TV sets.
On Your TV
Today it has become much more economical to set up a '"home
theatre". Good sized LCD TVs can be had from US$1,000, and plasma
sets now start at about $1,400 (we just purchased a Sanyo for
$1,500, and the picture is perfectly adequate, if not quite as
amazing as some of the $2,000+ models).
When you buy a high-definition TV, you're not buying it to watch
your old "pan-and-scan" VHS movies. DVDs are a great idea, but
unless you like owning every movie you want to see (and have a lot
of space to store them) or want to sign up for a subscription
rental service like Netflix, you're out of luck.
This is part of where iTV comes in. Connect iTV to your TV, and
you'll be able to send movies from your computer to the TV. This
lets your computer function as a digital archive for movies you
purchase as well as perform the function of the DVD player.
The idea makes a lot of sense. Not only do you save a lot of
space by not having to store DVDs, you also have instant access to
them at the click of a button - and you can watch them right on
your TV set as you would a DVD.
Past Failures
This isn't the first time someone has tried to integrate the
home computer with another function. In the 1990s, IBM made an
attempt at integrating the computer with the home. The IBM computer
you bought to do your work on and for your kids to do their
homework on could also turn your lights on and off and perform
similar functions like open garage doors. The system didn't sell -
largely because it was complex, and not everyone wanted their
computer to have that much control over their lives
Apple offered several Performas (notably the 5200 and 6400 series) in the mid-90s with
built-in TV tuners so you could watch TV on your computer. That
essentially failed - why watch TV on your small, low-resolution
computer screen if you can watch it on your 27" or 32" TV?
Why do we need the iTV? Couldn't you just watch the movies on
your computer?
Yes, you could, and if you've got a large display (20" or
above), that may make the most sense; especially if you don't want
to spend $400 on iTV in addition to what you've already spent for
your computer and TV. For students, watching movies on the computer
is commonplace, and with bigger displays available at lower prices
these days, others are likely going to catch on to the practice as
well.
So will the iTV sell? Maybe.
Why iTV Will Succeed
Apple has a way of making complex things simple. The iPod was a
simple, straightforward, easy-to-use MP3 player. AirPort made
something that even sounded confusing ("802.11b") as easy as
selecting an item from a dropdown menu.
There's no doubt that Apple can make iTV elegant and functional.
There's no doubt that it will be a quality product.
Whether people will want to buy it or not remains to be seen. In
the past few years, Apple's product announcements have attracted a
lot of attention, and that serves their interest. Some people will
buy it "just because". Others will buy it because they feel that it
will streamline their lives, just like the iPod streamlined the way
they listen to music.
But those who want wireless networking these days typically
don't buy Apple's AirPort Extreme wireless router (for a reason you
might want to consider it, see Small Networks: Apple's AirPort Hardware
Trumps the Competition). Sure, Netgear or Linksys may not be
the most elegant solution, but since it's not a device the user
actually physically uses, it works (behind the scenes), and that's
what counts.
If iTV is a success, Apple has to watch out for competitors who
offer more or less the same product at a much lower price point.
* Apple has already announced that the product
won't be called iTV when it comes to market. This was their working
name for the project, and we have no idea what the device will
actually be called, so we're sticking with iTV. For now.
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