May 1, 2007
When I first met with LaLa.com, CEO Bill Nguyen spoke about the importance of selection at online CD stores such as Amazon.com (which Apple had claimed during last September that the iTunes store was on the verge of passing). A recent meeting with LaLa’s John Kuch again touched on that theme. Apple’s selection in music, however, is not as rich as its selection in movies, and that’s the target of suddenly high-profile Vudu. After all, if instant access to a limited selection of movies had been so compelling, MovieBeam would have likely found a greater audience, and it was cheaper than the $300 being bandied about for its box, particularly after discounts. (I “overpaid” for mine at about $60 as I recall.)
So, armed with content from all of the majors save for Sony Pictures Entertainment, which may be facing corporate pressure to distribute to the PS3 (or not to further other strategic corporate interests), selection will likely be the trump card that Vudu plays as other solutions seem like they could probably circumvent any IP that the company may have with its in-house peer-to-peer content delivery network. Interestingly enough, the Times’ story quotes Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, the nearly 7 million members of which have to be considered low-hanging fruit for Vudu.
When I wrote about Apple TV versus TiVo and versus cable/satellite, I pegged programming depth and value as two areas where the digital media adapter was far behind. Vudu probably falls short too for now, but that could change fast if the company is really serious about competing with DVD and goes after the already aired TV show market. I’ll definitely have more to say about Vudu soon.
April 18, 2007
My fellow Jupiter Research alumni and I were excited for Dennis Crowley when Google acquired dodgeball, but it seems that it wasn’t a happy marriage as Dens (as his hipper friends call him) and his co-founder Alex Rainert (whom I met briefly at some Motorola party for the original ROKR, the product of another unhappy collaboration) have parted ways with Google and, for now, each other. Dennis becomes my second former Jupiter colleague to leave Google in the past few months with Pat Keane heading to the interactive division at of a three-letter network and picking up some three-letter titles in the process.
Dennis has joined the dungeon masters at area/code which, like former Jupiter CEO Gene DeRose’s company House Party (now being led by former Jupiter EVP of sales and marketing Kitty Kolding), brings people together in the world of atoms. Both companies seem to be leaning on promotional sponsorship opportunities as well. Whereas House Party focuses on the intimate setting of a host’s home, area/code games can envelop a whole city or even larger area. It sounds like a creative, exciting endeavor that should hopefully give Dennis more excuses to wear ’80s arcade character costumes.
Of course, I wish Dennis and (belatedly) Patrick great success in their new gigs, and continued success to Gene, Kitty and their partner Parker Reilly at House Party.
April 12, 2007
Nintendo has been a bit cagey picking and choosing its convergence, or at least non-gaming functionality, battles. Today the company announced the “final” version of the Wii Web browser, including functionality that has struggled as a standalone device (or maybe it’s been that subscription-fee bugaboo again). The Wii may even be muscling in on MSN TV’s core audience.
On the other hand, while the company has offered limited photo viewing via its SD card slot, there are no DMA features, which the Xbox 360 is including as an obvious Trojan Horse play. Wii has all the hardware on board to be a decent DMA though I doubt we’ll be seeing the “Wii Elite” (Weelite?).
Of course, at the other end of the horsepower spectrum, Sony has eschewed DMA features on its PS3 as well. This could also be remedied with a simple firmware update, but Sony has shied away from streaming from its PC to the television (but is going the other way), going straight to the Internet in terms of its upcoming Bravia module. On the other hand, Sony’s PC line is now unusual in that it makes only laptops and media center PCs intended to be directly connected to televisions.
Incidentally, Next Generation reported yesterday in the continuing consumer frustration with Wii supply despite its retail success. You heard it here first, folks.
April 10, 2007
I received a fair amount of feedback on my Apple TV vs. TiVo column from a few weeks ago, but none on the headline. Come on, people! Doesn’t anyone remember the famous New York Post headline? Anyway, some readers have suggested that Apple TV is really more competition for cable itself than simply TiVo. For that argument, I will consider cable as coming without DVR service, since cable DVRs are unavailable without cable, and we’ve already considered Apple TV vs. TiVo, which is one of the best retail options for those who would want DVR service without cable or satellite.
TiVo’s business model was initially designed to make it an attractive partner for cable, but such is not the case with Apple TV. Apple TV dips its toe into what some regulators have been asking for in “cable a la carte” but goes even further. Whereas cable a la carte advocates would like cable providers to offer only the channels they want, iTunes sells content by the series or even the episode.
Apple claims that it now offers 70 percent of the primetime offerings of major broadcast and popular cable networks such as Bravo. Of course, cable and satellite providers offer over 1,000 hours per week of programmed entertainment, even though we’ve all heard the complaints about there being “500 channels and nothing on.” When asked in an Engadget Mobile interview about broadcasting TV to cell phones a la MediaFLO, Helio CEO Sky Dayton responds rhetorically, “When was the last time you watched linear programming?”
Nonetheless, there’s still a lot on broadcast and cable that isn’t on iTunes, or isn’t on iTunes until the followiong season. As was the case for TiVo, if your tastes don’t wander outside iTunes’ selection (which will certainly grow), buying your content from iTunes may make sense, but for now Apple TV can’t compete with the breadth of cable or satellite television that most consumers value.
Erica Ogg at News.com’s gadgets blog writes that Slingbox support of AppleTV would open the “intriguing new possibility” of streaming music from iTunes on your home computer to your cell phone. I’d recommend that she check out Avvenu’s smartphone client. I have used the desktop version of the Avvenu music service and think it’s the slickest remote PC music experience I’ve seen yet.
Nevertheless, Sling Media’s race to support AppleTV raises questions about how this support will differ from that of its own forthcoming hard drive-equipped television accessory, the SlingCatcher. SlingCatcher stands to be a triple-threat, capable of receiving content from a PC, Slingbox, or the Internet. It’s the third source that might benefit from having a Slingbox and SlingCatcher (or perhaps a future combination of them) connected to the same television. And with an expected street price of $200, available for only two thirds of the price. Of course, Sling won’t have access to Apple’s advertising budget, so perhaps supporting AppleTV is the least they can do to thank Apple for resurrecting the digital media adapter category.
April 7, 2007
Enjoying The Hoax this afternoon reminded me of a couple of high-profile online April Fools’ jokes this year that have turned out to be real. One was ThinkGeek’s 8-bit tie that the company is already working on producing. An even more elaborate joke was Gmail Paper but, aside from the delivery aspect, it’s really not too conceptually different from what Presto is trying to do, is it?
March 12, 2007
I saw a Google ad today that took me to Danny’s Scam Review, which links to two, er, questionable sites. (Hmm, let’s see, they use the same exact floating banner as Danny’s Scan Review. Could they possibly be related?) Anyway, the noteworthy part is when “Danny” writes, “I was scammed by 37 different ‘get rich quick schemes’ and I lost over $4800 in 3 months.”
Right, that’s just the type of savvy individual from which I’m eager to take advice.
February 23, 2007
In enumerating his latest ideal features for a podcast player, Dave Winer illustrates a dilemma that convergence poses. Dave wants Blackberry-like synchronization, which I agree would be a nice feature, but one that would probably translate into carrier support and distribution. It would be a tough sell to get carriers to offer such a product as it would be deemed too niche. This is partly why cheaper. more accessible wireless broadband, via WiMax or some other source, can’t come soon enough to reinvigorate the consumer electronics market.
Dave also wants the product to be a platform of sorts. I’d support plug-in functionality, but would oppose making the thing completely open as Mike Elgan has argued the Zune should be. As Michael Gartenberg notes before tempting me to buy niche coffee-making products, there are already several multifunction products that could easily meet Dave’s requirements, yet they are not considered for the task because of their loosely defined functionality.
February 16, 2007
I was intrigued and then a bit confused by this iPhone column written last month by my friend and former colleague Noah Elkin. The intrigue came from considering the iPhone as bringing the dawn of mobile “Web 2.0″ and then the confusion came when I realized that Noah was not talking about mobile “Web 2.0″ but “Mobile Web” 2.0 — the tyranny of punctuation-specific jargon.
In any case, it’s one of the first pieces I’ve read to discuss the Web content implications of the iPhone. Noah’s raises valid points about the iPhone’s slow 2.5G radio and limited installed base for the foreseeable future. He also anticipates a backlash against mobile marketing. Apple is promising a “desktop-like” browsing experience courtesy Safari. Java won’t be supported but I believe that Flash will. If not, it should be.
The better Apple executes on that desktop experience (and the browsing UI is definitely one of the most promising features shown to date), the less distinction there will be between the next generation of the “mobile Web” and the one we access from our PCs in terms of information access (Web 1.0). We’ve also yet to see if the iPhone’s version of Safari will support RSS as the Mac’s does. However, there’s even greater potential if Web developers target the iPhone for the application-like features commonly associated with Web 2.0.
Certainly in the short-term, it could provide some relief for Apple’s third-party lock-out, but many Web 2.0 interfaces would have to be recreated to be optimized for the lower resolution and finger-driven interfaces of the iPhone. Apple should also open up widgets to third parties. It’s a limited access environment, after all, and third-party adoption was key to widgets’ success on Tiger.
