Apple moves into the living room

The dinky new thumbsized iPod shuffle is, according to Steve Jobs, the smallest MP3 player in the world. But don’t be fooled – the main message from Apple’s press event last night was that a company reinvigorated by its move five years ago to put music in your pocket (in the shape of the all-conquering iPod) is now thinking much bigger.

The star of yesterday’s show may turn out to be the unassuming “iTV” gadget that will link PCs and Macs to television sets. Big, flat screen TV sets. The continued absence of a “widescreen” iPod also suggests Apple sees the living room as the next key battlefront. Microsoft already has a similar “media extender” product in the market. But Microsoft hasn’t sold 1.5 billion tracks through its music service. Apple, on the other hand, has – and as a result enjoys a hugely solid platform in digital media distribution.

Venturing into digital movie downloads with only Disney on board is far from ideal. But Jobs went to great lengths to stress how the TV download equivalent on iTunes started last year with just one network and five shows and now has scores of networks and more than 200 shows. Amazon's Unbox download service has the studios on board (apart from Disney, that is) but the e-tailer lacks the proprietary hardware to make the digital home a reality. Apple is far from being alone in the hardware stakes, though, and is surely now heading for a showdown with the likes of TiVo and Sky Plus?

The new iTunes 7 layout does look stunning – and points to the usability factor that has always been Apple's trump card. If Apple can crack the living room problem – and make downloaded content comfortably viewable from the couch – it’ll be an awful long way towards cracking the market.

Comments

[Rachel Murphy]

Downloading music is commonplace now. I no longer buy CDs but instead download it from the internet and stream it from my Mac to speakers in my sitting room.

Downloading films is just the next step. They will be less expensive than buying DVDs (and there will be no discs for my children to scratch and ruin!).

I am an enormous fan of Apple - they come up with stylish, intuitive products. I will be first in line for the iTV when it is released next year.

[Sue Burnett]

I'll be right behind you, Rachel. I know from 20 years' experience of the company that if Apple produces it then it will be of exceptional quality and functionality.

I'm not sure what Rhys Blakely means by "the living room problem" though - my G3 iMac has been in the living room from the day I bought it. Apart from its practical use for surfing and playing DVDs (often concurrently), it is a stunning piece of modern 'sculpture' - I can't wait to link it to the TV as well!

[Cameron Holmes]

iTV is the logical next step; I already have a TV monitor connected to a spare TV, and this will make things much less awkward.

[Soren Felden]

I would buy it and use it as a media center provided that two improvements are implemented: (1) The ability to download individual music tracks in lossless, hi-fi quality (playing the current MP3 format on decent speakers sounds horrible!), and (2) the launch of a remote control capable of controlling the iTV and the TV, DVD etc (right now you need two remotes at least, which sort of ruins the idea of a media center).

[Scott A]

I think a lot of people are missing an important but subtle point: you don't have to buy content from the iTunes Store to make use of the device. You could just as easily play any media file you come into contact with using this iTV via your Mac or PC box.

[Webb I]

Why would you want to download a bad-quality movie containing digital rights managements preventing you from burning it to DVD for a saving of around 10 per cent of the retail version?

iTV looks a great device but where is the PVR functionality, and until you can download something approaching DVD quality it really isn’t worth the money.

[Paul Hague]

I cannot believe that once again a massive player in the market has received huge publicity simply for the size as opposed to the quality of the offering.

Apple has led the way with music downloads, but if they continue to take the proprietorial stance that they have developed in the audio market, it will cause them more harm than good in the end. Once other device manufacturers produce devices that can match and better the iPod, the movie download service will suffer if it can only be downloaded to Apple devices. Does anyone really want to watch a low-resolution film on a small iPod screen, whilst waiting 30 minutes for the privilege of an ‘on-demand’ offering?!

At the moment, only Disney has signed up for the service (is this a surprise given Steve Jobs’ position on the boards of both companies?). Apple is having trouble convincing the studios that this is potentially profitable, and with the prices higher than buying an actual DVD it is no wonder that scepticism abounds.

The studios need to realise they have to move with the times and not fight the video download revolution, but they are quite rightly being careful when choosing partners. Apple was clever to bring music downloads into the legal mainstream, and although they are attempting to do the same with video downloads, the limitations of their service will ensure that they will become only one player amongst many in the video download market.