The Digital Home

The TiVo: close, but no cigar.

(Credit: TiVo)

Roku announced this week that it signed on with Major League Baseball to deliver MLB.tv Premium to its set-top box. It's the first live content that the device, which is best known for its Netflix streaming, will offer.

But like many other set-top boxes on the market, the services the Roku box offers aren't unique to that device. Netflix streaming is available on a large and growing number of devices, including TiVo DVRs, the Xbox 360, and all newer LG and Samsung Blu-ray players and home theater systems. In addition to the Roku, MLB programming is available on the PC, through Boxee, and through various cable and satellite TV packages.

Indeed, many TVs, Blu-ray players, DVRs, and home theater systems now have a baseline configuration that makes it relatively easy to add streaming services via postpurchase firmware upgrades. At this point, adding content seems almost as simple as calling the content provider and having lawyers work up an agreement between the parties.

The problem is, those partners are not necessarily working together. The hardware providers want those streaming or download services to be exclusive to their boxes. The content providers want their entertainment to be made available on as many devices (STBs or otherwise) as possible. Those very different goals are causing set-top boxes to provide most, but not all, the services that consumers want.

Can a product's value be measured by how much its developers improve it over time? If so, that metric would not have positive implications for the Apple TV.

Apple quietly updated its Time Capsule storage device Thursday. The high-end model will now retail for $499 and allow up to 2TB of storage. The low-end model with 1TB of storage will now retail for $299.

The Apple TV is in desperate need of an update.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

It's a nice upgrade. And it follows a list of several updates Apple has made in recent months to many of its products, including the iPhone, MacBook, and MacBook Pro. Apple is even preparing for its new operating system, Snow Leopard, which is slated for release in September.

But the company has yet to release a major upgrade to its Apple TV. Granted, Apple has updated the device's software on multiple occasions, but where's the new, major hardware update?

For almost a year now, we've been hearing about impending refreshes to the Apple TV.

In September, reports suggested that an Apple TV update featuring anything from a "Mac Mini/Apple TV" hybrid to something related to HDTVs was imminent. Nothing of the sort was ever announced.

In February, reporters found a survey that Apple conducted asking Apple TV owners how they were watching video on the device. It also asked them what they would change about the set-top box. That survey vanished from Apple's Web site. And once again, no major updates were released.

Sony's Blu-ray Disc is arguably overpriced and overhyped, and it probably won't be nearly as successful as DVD, but I came across an interesting tidbit of information over the weekend that may make some change their minds about the success of the high-definition video format.

According to Nielsen VideoScan figures for the week ending February 22, Blu-ray captured 10 percent market share, and sales were up 29.31 percent over the same week last year. DVD captured the remaining 90 percent share, but its revenues were down almost 12 percent, year over year.

Granted, that's just one week's figures, and it doesn't mean much in the broader sense, but if you look at previous weeks, those figures are much the same. In fact, Blu-ray is slowly gaining ground on DVD, and its 10 percent share is actually an impressive figure, given its history.

I usually spend my video-allocated cash on other formats, but there is one place where Blu-ray will always win out for me: rentals. I won't stream films, and I won't rent DVDs. Blu-ray is the only format that I will rent from my local video store or get from Netflix. It's as simple as that.

Apple rules the tech industry on too many fronts. Sorry, it's just true.

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Much has been made over Apple's unwillingness or inability to establish a foothold in the enterprise. Mac fanatics claim it's because Apple is about consumers and doesn't want to cater to the business world, while Apple haters claim Apple simply isn't capable of beating Microsoft in the enterprise because it doesn't play well with others.

I think both arguments are ludicrous.

If Apple didn't want to break into the business world, it would probably be the dumbest company in the tech industry. The enterprise is one of the most profitable and important sectors in the market and to say that Apple doesn't want a piece of that pie is ridiculous.

A recent report suggests Apple is finally starting to make enterprise developers happy, as evidenced by the Enterprise Desktop Alliance, a group of companies that are trying desperately to bring Macs into major companies already deploying Windows. And with the help of Parallels and VMware Fusion, it's becoming abundantly clear that companies aren't inexorably tied to Windows anymore.

But Apple's real gains in the enterprise aren't going to happen in the next couple years. Instead, the company will see huge gains in the enterprise in five to ten years when today's college students who have been brainwashed by Apple's products finally reach positions of power in the business world. When that happens, the Old Guard that only knows Windows will step aside and a new generation of wunderkinds will propel Apple to the forefront of enterprise technology.

Apple announced today that it has not only become the world's most popular TV programming store, thanks to 200 million unit sales of TV shows, but that all four of the major networks--CBS, Fox, ABC, and NBC--are offering high-definition content on the iTunes store.

"We've got an incredible fall 2008 TV lineup with over 70 prime time comedies and dramas, including many of the most popular shows on TV in stunning HD," said Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of Internet services. "With over 200 million episodes sold, iTunes customers have proven they love watching television on their computer, iPod, iPhone and TV with Apple TV."

If Apple is the world's leading store for buying TV shows and the world's largest music retailer, how can Blu-ray and it's measly 8 percent market share, expect to compete with Apple's freight train as it starts to pick up steam in the movie space?

I contacted Apple for its latest movie sales figures, but the company didn't provide any. Because of that, I'm forced to consider the fact that as of this past January, it had sold 7 million films on iTunes after 15 months of availability. Consider the fact that Blu-ray hit the 7 million-units-sold mark after 18 months, and it's quite obvious that people are ready and willing to download films instead of buying an expensive player and media to go with it.

Some people want us to believe that Apple doesn't do anything wrong. In fact, those same people usually believe that each and every product Apple has ever created has easily surpassed the quality and beauty of all of its competitors. Surely they would like you to forget the Apple Newton and the '90s, and invariably they'll forget that the company's Apple TV is hardly a success.

But alas, this is not meant to be an indictment of Apple or its cult-like following. Instead, it's an indictment on how ludicrous some of the claims flying around Apple truly are. How many times are we forced to endure the inexcusable lack of common sense as it pertains to Apple's future before someone stands up and says that enough is enough?

And while I may expect that sort of reaction from some of the Mac faithful, I certainly wouldn't expect it from a reputable firm. But after reading through the Forrester Research speculation piece, I can't help but wonder what the analysts were thinking. Do they honestly believe that a company that has gone out of its way to develop elite products will really release a picture frame?

Steve Jobs may be good, but he's not that good.

Everyone likes to talk about the battle between Microsoft and Apple on the OS front, but that seems like old hat to me. Sure, there's certainly a battle being waged in that space, but is it really as hotly contested as some want to believe? Call me when Mac OS X hits 20 percent market share.

The Xbox 360 is the Apple TV killer

(Credit: Microsoft)

But there is one battle raging between Apple and Microsoft that many people don't even see. No, it's not in the MP3 player market where the iPod reigns supreme, it's in the home entertainment business. More specifically, the battle being waged pits the Apple TV against the Xbox 360.

Now I know what you're thinking -- "isn't the Xbox 360 a video game console and the Apple TV is a media device"? Yes and no. The description of each device may be correct, but the Xbox 360 description doesn't say enough about the console. Aside from its gaming capabilities, Microsoft's product performs many of the tasks already found on the Apple TV -- streaming entertainment, music, movies and TV show viewing and a hard drive that can store your favorite material.

And with an installed base of over 18 million that easily eclipses the Apple TV's 1.7 million installed base, there's no reason to suggest Microsoft can't win the battle and finally deal the Apple TV its death blow. And here's how it should do it:

With services like Movielink, Netflix, and Vudu, the opportunities seem endless for companies that endeavor to turn the corner in the movie rental business. And while all of these companies positioned themselves in the market, Apple was quietly lurking in the shadows, ready to pounce on January 15, 2008.

After showing their hands to arguably the world's most capable CEO, every other movie rental service created an environment where Steve Jobs could pick and choose what features he liked and create a more robust offering.

After all, with rentals ranging in price from $2.99-$4.99 depending on release date and quality, and a 30-second buffering much like we've seen with the Vudu box, why would anyone even consider buying rentals from any other service besides iTunes (with the one exception perhaps being Netflix)?

Simply put, Jobs is poised to conquer yet another industry.