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GoogleTV, AppleTV and the Battle For The Living Room

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the can-someone-win-already dept.

An anonymous reader pointed us to an article talking about Google TV and AppleTV challenging the major networks and taking their place in your living room. It'll be a tough battle, amusingly waged on cable company wires in many major markets.

7 of 226 comments (clear)

  1. with net neutrality not going to happen by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    they won't get far off the ground. when it takes money out of the cable company mouths (the ISPs), they will throttle down google tv and apple tv so that you will have to use their services instead and there will be nothing we can do about it because enforcing net neutrality is big government intervention - just go ask the tea party people - they are adamant against net neutrality

  2. Net neutrality by codewarren · · Score: 4, Insightful

    And when the cable company says you can't use our lines for that... the guantlet for net neutrality will be thrown also.

    (or when the cable company says, "look we have tv over the internet now too" like they did with phone service)

    1. Re:Net neutrality by MozeeToby · · Score: 4, Insightful

      (or when the cable company says, "look we have tv over the internet now too" like they did with phone service)

      So? Let them, then there would be three TV over IP services vying for my money instead of just two (actually between Netflix, Amazon, and the possible multitude of Android based players there will be many more than three but you get the point). Though I suspect rather than "you can't use our lines for that" it will be a computer nerd shacked up in his workshop doing tests on each of the devices that discovers that the cable company's offering magically gets better bandwidth and latency than their competition. Though which cable companies will be stupid enough to pick a fight with the likes of Google and Apple at the same time remains to be seen (but you just know there will be at least one of them that thinks they can get away with it).

    2. Re:Net neutrality by webheaded · · Score: 5, Insightful

      And if you're in an area where both companies do it?

      I get tired about hearing about great old capitalism and choices in a market that essentially HAS NO CHOICES. I'm all for letting the market decide, but some people seem determined to fit a square peg in a round hole. It doesn't work in every single market. Stop parroting that crap and think about it for a minute. I mean seriously think. It's entirely possible that BOTH companies offering these services are simply going to dictate to you what you're allowed to do with their service and there is not a single thing you can do it. In other words, you can't vote for your wallet if there's no one there to vote for.

      --
      "Those who would sacrifice essential liberties for a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - BenF
  3. Doesn't matter by qsqueeq · · Score: 5, Insightful

    My wife still gets the remote.

    --
    www.qsopht.com ~q
  4. UI? by UnknowingFool · · Score: 4, Insightful

    From the demo, Google TV requires some sort of keyboard/mouse interface. From the FAQ, it doesn't appear that it will be a standard Bluetooth one. Other the other end, Apple has a simplified remote but will allow for control through one of the iOS devices. I think where the battle will be won is how consumers will like the UI.

    --
    Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
  5. Apple is out to hunt bigger game than cable by joeflies · · Score: 5, Insightful
    It looks like that Apple TV is out to replace cable companies, but I think that's only a superficial view of the long term plan. There's been no announcement to date that Apple plans to offer any channel that appears on cable .. rather they go through online content providers. They complete skipped the major gripe of cable, i.e. to offer a "subscribe to channels you want ala carte", and changed the game to "buy what episodes you want to see, on demand".

    Which leads to the question .. so what role do the networks play in the grand scheme of things ... NBC / ABC / CBS / FOX are not all developing their own content, they buy that content from a show producer. If Apple develops enough mindshare and living rooms, you don't need NBC to order the episodes of a new show, Apple can buy it directly from the show's producers.

    This could be a great play to cut out all the middlemen, not just the cable company or the satellite monthly fee, but the entire tv network system as well ... it's possibly the biggest change in the business of TV in 50 years, and frankly none of the TV networks seem to notice yet.