Adding Intelligence To The Biggest Screen: TV

Image via WikipediaApple added intelligence to the smallest screen: the phone. The iPhone happened. If you can move from the PC screen to the small screen, you should be able to move in the other direction as well. The TV screen is what you meet when you go in the other direction. It is not if but when. And Chris Dixon just posted a great blog post on the topic. Go read.

Chris Dixon: Apple And The TV Industry: the reasoning analysts used to predict the failure of the iPhone before its launch in 2007..... Why do you think they call it a Crackberry? Because the lumpy design and confusing interface of the device is causing people to break into cars? No, it’s because people are addicted to it. ...... What Apple ended up doing, however, was creating a phone that was so incredibly desirable to consumers that it completely restructured the industry, causing a massive shift of power away from the carriers. ..... the last thing the cable operators want is for internet-delivered programming that bypasses their cable channels to become widespread – they see that as the fast track to become a dumb pipe ..... let’s imagine Apple develops a TV that is as groundbreaking as the iPhone was. The biggest problem “smart TVs” have today is that they need clunky IR transmitters to control set top boxes because the cable operators won’t willingly interoperate. So a new Apple TV would have to drum up such incredible consumer demand that the operators would feel compelled to support it. This does indeed seem harder in the TV than in the mobile industry. At least in the US you had 4 nationwide mobile operators at the time of the iPhone launch. In TV, consumers normally have at most two real choices for traditional cable programming – cable and satellite – and two real choices for two-way internet – cable and DSL/FIOS...... Perhaps Apple won’t enter the market due to its structure. But that didn’t stop them in mobile phones where the structure was similarly difficult. The mistake analysts made about the iPhone was to assume the current industry structure would be sustained after Apple’s entry. I’d be wary of making the same assumption about the TV industry.

What Disqus Can Learn From Boxee

Image via CrunchBaseBoxee is the big dog. It's not Apple TV, it's not Google TV. Wordpress beats Blogger. When you think check in, you are more likely to think FourSquare than Facebook. There is something about the nimble startup that is focused on one mission.

Facebook just threw a big one in the direction of Disqus, a service I love.

Boxee, The Name

Image via CrunchBaseThere is just something about the name Boxee that bothers me, has always bothered me. It is that the name is too boxee, it reminds me of a box of some shape, size. And that is not a great image in my mind. The idea should be to get rid of boxes. I might have liked the name boxit, as in box up that TV, bury it in this box, you don't need it. Liberation.

The Video Format And Web Intelligence

Image via CrunchBaseIt is not that people are saying, oh no, the internet got us addicted to the text, we have no more love for the video format, or that we are cutting down on both French fries and video content.

The demand for TV shows and movies is bigger than ever and growing. So what gives? Why are people in the TV/video/movies business worried? Why are the cable people scared? They are scared because the times, they are a changing. And they are refusing to change with the times.

TV's Future

Mark Suster: The Future of Television & The Digital Living Room: Video will be inextricably linked to the future of the Internet and consumption between PCs, mobile devices and TVs will merge...... with the introduction of Apple TV, Google TV, the Boxee Box & other initiatives it’s clear that this battle will heat up in 2011

First and foremost it is about bandwidth. There is need for faster broadband at cheaper prices that competition will bring. This is a public policy issue. Then it is about the shocks to the old guard industries that the new technology will bring. Old business models will get toppled. New business models will come into play. Content creation will get vastly democratized. Movie production should not be a Los Angeles or New York thing. Movies should be made where the people are, and they are everywhere.