Opinion: Why TV fears the Apple iBroadcast 'revolution'

[Bif]

For me, big TVs have been dead to me for a year now. I have a 60" plasma that just sits there, only used about once a month when the family wants to watch some blu-ray/DVD. Probably a good thing since it sucks up a lot of power, not very eco-friendly.

I watch content from several local stations through my smartphone instead, free and legal. And there's apps like Crackle streaming some of Sony's movie and TV content for free too. It's all actually way more content than I have time to watch. And it's much more convenient to watch as it's on demand, and comfortable because I can watch anywhere. The thought of trudging upstairs to the TV at a specific time seems ludicrous to me now.

The question for me is does the internet streaming model work for companies, e.g. can they get enough ad revenue to cover streaming expenses and turn a profit? Or are they running a loss-leader just trying to make sure they don't fall behind the times because they are worried Apple will indeed jump in and destroy them?

Anyway, whatever Apple does will be interesting, but you won't ever find me buying an Apple TV or paying them a dime for anything. I do think this whole area will be turned on it's head over the next few years though.

[Bif]

If they were overpriced people wouldn't buy them... Something is only worth what people will pay for it, Apple sell plenty of devices at the pice points they choose.

As for lock in... Not sure how they are any different from any other company...

I'll give my most recent example of why I'll never buy an Apple product again due to Apple's anti-competitive practices.

I installed Dell Voice (a VOIP app that gives you a number to receive calls with) on my wife's iPhone and registered an account/number for her via the app. This app is available for iOS, Android, your PC, and whatever else they care to come out with it on. However, when I later went to sign her in on her Android tablet it came up with a message of "due to an agreement with Apple you cannot use a Dell Voice account on an Android device that was registered from an iPhone".

The sad thing is I wasn't at all surprised by this, that's just the typical monopolistic anti-competitive lock in style that Apple pushes. I remember at first you couldn't even get VOIP apps for the iPhone for anti-competitive reasons, so it doesn't surprise me they are still trying to control it anyway they can.

Without realizing this restriction existed, I registered my own Dell Voice account/number from the PC app first. No problems using it on my new droid phone here. Lucky me I guess.

Anyway, don't get me started on the emulators, etc ...