Apple Did It Again: Apple TV and iPhone

You may know that I have spent more than my fair share of time in the industry of purgatory known as "interactive television." It is a place that has consumed many fruitless careers over the past twenty years. The gateway to television technology is monopolized by the industries that dominate access. Primarily this means the cable industry, a slow and lumbering beast that rules the access to consumers with a protective and juvenile conservative attitude.

A few companies have sunk huge resources into the market potential; notably Microsoft and Paul Allen's Digeo, and Larry Ellison's Liberate (the successor to Oracle's Network Computer where my own efforts in this domain began). They have all failed dramatically and with embarrassing consistency.

In part this is the result of greed. Technology companies lust for the largeness of the television market, and even though technologists are not known for their television viewing habits they all think they have something to offer Joe and Mary Six-pack (as the industry lovingly refers to a large portion of its market). Cable companies lust to keep their cash cows by doing as little extra as possible.

Incompetence exists all around. Technology companies want to give television viewers much much more activity than they will ever accept or need. Cable companies want to keep dumbing the public down and extracting more cash. Just keep the public sitting, stupidly staring at the television watching adverts and paying subscriptions, and we'll all make a lot of money. The sad fact of the matter is, from the cold capitalism of it, it works and the general public fall for it and don't care. As a result the high technology companies, all except Apple, have been kissing the cable industry's back end.

I've seen a lot of interactive television proposals. I've made a few of my own, and I hold patents in the field (now owned by Microsoft).

So when Apple announced in September that they were going to create a "set-top box" my ears perked up and I have been keen to hear the details, that were finally revealed yesterday.

Of course, noting that this is a notoriously difficult space, with dead bodies everywhere, no industry can be handled with more caution and caveats. This said, I think Apple have got the bull by the horns and the Apple TV product looks perfect.

The reason for my optimism about Apple is the success of iTunes and the natural extension of the successful iPod franchise. Apple TV basically turns your TV into a video iPod - fully, and automatically, integrated with iTunes. IPods are now understood by all, iTunes has a growing portfolio that is now increasingly attractive to content providers and already is hitting a critical mass.

While Steve Jobs was commanding the consumer electronics limelight in San Francisco, CES - the annual consumer tech love fest in Las Vegas was a footnote. Bill Gates' bravado keynote at the event in which he lamented the difficulties Apple would face against the vastly superior efforts of Microsoft are now just hollow echos. Yesterday, Apple put Microsoft TV, Digeo and Liberate to shame with solutions, executed with sophistication, simplicity, style and embarrassing competence. Apple are now the only game in town.

Apple have leveraged the strengths that they have developed over the past five years to crack a nut that many have tried to make a dent in before. I wish them luck and I am optimistic about their chances.

It's game over for the cable companies when HBO signs up for iTunes. The absence of HBO is perhaps the one weakness in iTunes. When they join, the rest will be compelled to follow. What may compel HBO to join is that iTunes with video Podcasting offers a new and compelling route for independent content producers to get onto your television screen - something that has been impossible to do before.

Don't under estimate the cable companies, who still have a lot of leverage with mainstream content providers - they fight dirty and there is a lot at stake. The content providers will have to pick their allegiances carefully, but a rise of independent video producers would quickly compel them to favor Apple.

For the record, iTunes is currently the only way that I watch television. I subscribe to series like Law and Order, South Park, and 24. I buy single episodes of shows I am exploring: recently, Dirt, Firefly and Lost. Yes, I watch these shows on my laptop - and do it with company - so I will certainly pick up an Apple TV in March, which is when I expect to see them in stores. HBO? I wait for the DVDs.

Up front, the only real concern one might have about the iPhone is that no standby time is given in the specs and five hours just might be too little use time. The reason for this is that this is a device that people are going to love and they are going to want to use it all the time. So five hours is likely to frustrate.

Even technology weary folk like me are drooling to get one. The widescreen iPod and multi-touch screen - heralding things to come in the iPod mainstream - is enough ... but oh, no ... they had to put OS X on the thing as well to provide for an incredibly useful device - and an incredible new user interface. If you haven't done so yet, go to the Apple web site and play with the Quicktime demos ... oh, man!