Predicting the next technology trends and the future is something that many people (especially tech nerds) love to do. Forrester, one of the most dominant research companies in North America, has released an interesting study on how Apple will evolve over the next 5-7 years.
The just of the study? That Apple will try to own the home (everyone's home) in a few, critical ways.
The first deals with convergence. Having one device that acts as your home server - controlling your TV, internet, sound and all the digital HD pictures hanging on all your wall. Essentially, they want to be the provider who can not only give you the latest hardware (a new iPhone / iTouch) but also hook you up from a service perspective (think iTunes for your favorite TV shows).
For a long time, I've hoped that Apple will make a strong play into the Cable game. Currently, providers hold all of the content cars. They dictate "specialty" channels and force customers to buy upgrades for better (and mostly essential) content. Networks dictate the schedules of when you're favorite shows are on and advertisers pick the ones that are the most popular / most targeted.
The emergence of the PVR has changed this - slightly. We don't have to be home for the network time, we can just record the show and watch it later. We don't have to wait for the two minutes of ads to go through, we can just fast-forward them.
But still, we can't control all of our content.
I hope that with Apple's "Own the home" strategy (if it really exists...like Forrester predicts) that they provide consumers with a list of the channels they want. Imagine an RSS feed for your TV shows.
In the end, all I really want is one channel. And that channel is always playing shows I love (or will love).
Of course, if they could be beamed to my iPhone or HD TV in the washroom, that would be pretty nice too.
Full article from Wired.
No comments:
Post a Comment