Thursday 24 December 2009

Comment on Cringley's "DVD is Dead" post

In regards to http://tr.im/Ivrs

Apple's "plan" to be "front and center" of the living room seems a lot more like an outside bet than a central strategy to me. When you see as many TV spots for the AppleTV as the iPhone then you'll know the strategy has changed. The living room tech cycle is super-slow compared to Apple's "normal" and thus difficult to integrate.

Bob's kinda missed the point here though, this actually signals the *failure* of Blu-Ray. It's just going to take over from DVD in a smooth flattish decline, no one is out there re-buying their library in Blu-Ray.

There's a huge pent up demand for an "iTunes" experience for video content. I.e. put DVD in the machine, machine makes digital copy, moves copy to my device(s), I make future purchases as downloads and everything lives in a single library.

My guess is Apple hasn't been able to swing that with the Hollywood studios yet. It's still not clear whether you're legally allowed to make a backup copy of a DVD you bought. In the meantime they're just keeping the AppleTV on life support until something gives.

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