Would it be worth it for Apple to start selling “regular” TV sets?
There’s one or many TV sets in pretty much every home in the western world, as well as in Asia and other parts of the world. Many may have already updated their sets with nice new flatscreens. But the whole TV scene is going to change a lot more in the coming few years. It would be a huge opportunity for Apple to get into every livingroom.
First of all, TV is dead. Or it will be, as we know it, in a few years. After you’ve downloaded the videos you really want to watch to your computer and watched them right there on your computer screen, or on Apple TV, you’ll know what I’m talking about. TV is old. Even watching TV on the computer gives you so many more features that there’s just no fun going back.
Steve Jobs used to say that people who claim that the computer and the TV will merge into one platform are wrong. He said that when people want to turn their brain on they sit in front of their computer, but when they want to turn they brain off, they instead sit in front of their TV.
‘Our personal belief is that while there’s an opportunity to apply software to the living room, the merging of the computer and the TV isn’t going to happen. They’re really different things. So yes, you want to share some information [between the two], but people who are planning to put computers into the living room, like they are today, I’m not sure they’re going to have a big success.’ Steve Jobs to Red Orbit, October 2005.
A few months later, at the MacWorld tradeshow in January 2006, he said: “Do we think that PCs and televisions are going to merge? No. The next great age of the personal computer is going to be the digital hub.”
He has a good point. But as he said, they will merge a little. Apple is proving it themselves by building the Apple TV, with feature from both the TV world and the computer. True, a TV set 3 meters away may not be so practical for doing your Photoshoping, but it’s still a merge of sorts. And more will come. You will be able to work on your TV, and you will be able to watch TV on your computer. You obviously already can, but it will be standard. And most important of all, you will get a much better choice on what you watch.
The same goes for your handheld devices. It’s more a matter of where you want to do what.
Many have tried, but it’s hard to do it right.
The boldest proponent of the resuscitation was veteran convergence warrior Steve Perlman of WebTV fame. In case you forgot, Perlman – formerly of Apple, Microsoft and General Magic – was one of the first engineers to seriously attempt to merge PC functionality into the television set.
Even though he sold WebTV (now MSN TV service) to Microsoft in April 1997 for $425 million, the central concept of Net surfing via the TV has been a failure. Despite the grand promises, most Internet users soon learned that the computer works best for accessing Web pages and the TV works best for watching passive entertainment programming. (Source)
Imagine. He sold technology that went nowhere for more than $400 million! Wow. Microsoft, you want to buy my old bicycle? Just $10 million! And it works!
But that’s the world of technology. Much of it is just imagination.
So what’s next?
Touch screen, for one thing, is coming to all the mac screens, as well as to TVs. This will be a perfect time to make that marvelous Kid Computer (Mac Play?) where kids can touch and really interact with the computer, even without understanding the keyboard or the mouse. I have a ton of ideas for this one, I’ll have to get back to you on this.
Easy access, capture, moving, display and archiving of all data. EyeTV has done a great job simplifying how you find, watch and capture tv shows. And it could be even easier.
I’m really happy Apple thought of Time Capsule. It’s a great product idea, even if it might take some time for it to catch on. The next frontier is data portability, and safe data is the foundation for that. You shouldn’t have to worry about losing your data, or even where to save it.
Next could come more practical (and cool) ways to move data between hardware. You should be able to wisk around your video clips, sound files and contact info between two gadgets just by bringing them closer to each other, or by “throwing” a clip from one gadget to the other, from your phone to your tv screen, like you throw a ball to someone. Archiving would be done automatically, and access would be global right away. Security should be clever and done in “steps”. Not everything needs to be top secret.
Bad interface is so annoying. Maybe, when all this clunky “interface” is gone, we could focus more on content, and on what to really use our time for?
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