So what do you think? I liked AirPlay, gaming looks amazing, new Touch is going to be hit. Apple TV look great too. Streaming was no problem.
One thing I think wont fly though is $0.99 rentals. Networks are all hot to try to milk it, but I don’t believe that model will work. Neither will $4.99 rentals be sustainable. One of the reasons Blockbuster is going belly up is that they charged for freaking movie $4.99. You can’t beat Netflix with it’s $9 flat rate. There are other ways people are renting movies these days for a buck per movie. For TV rentals, if you wanted to watch 3 shows a day, which is pretty much standard, it would be $90 a month just for those shows!!! That’s a ridiculous business model. I also think it is a wrong assumption that amateur stuff is unimportant. It’s just pandering to studios. I actually believe there is a great future in amateur stuff. That’s why YouTube is so popular. Most of the Hollywood stuff these days is a lot of shiny crap and no substance. But hey, maybe teenagers will pay for that crap, what do I know.
sworoc 3:12 pm on September 1, 2010 522 days ago Reply
I think the best product of the day was the new Nano, it looks pretty slick. The new Touch should be pretty good as well, but I feel like the market will be strange in that people with either go for the iPhone at this point, or the iPad.
The Touch will most likely only fit the young teen and below age group. 299 isn’t cheap, so unless you’re avoiding the iPhone contract you’ll likely pass on the Touch and choose another Apple product instead.
As far as the TV goes, it has a lot of promise, but as you said: prices will be key. If Netflix has the content you’re looking for, it’s a way better way to go. I’d like to see them do some bundles, maybe a whole season of TV episodes for 10 bucks, or something similar. I could see that price point being much more likely to sell, whereas now a show with 30 episodes will be about the same price to rent as to buy on DVD!
Anyone know the details on how long your rental lasts, how many times you can view something?
GotWake 4:17 pm on September 1, 2010 522 days ago Reply
The new nano will be a hit. They did exactly what they needed to with the touch. Facetime and a camera was a must this go around.
Apple TV is very nice. Great price point. I love the streaming from other devices. But, I agree with you guys. The networks live in la la land if they think that people are going to pay that much for content. I’m afraid it is going to be a very long time before the idiots at the major networks get a clue. The day we get the major networks on board and can choose which content we want to pay for, is the day cable companies start to die. That extra 150 channels that I never look at can say bye bye.
Apple’s website says “You have 30 days to start watching, and once you begin, you can watch as many times as you want in 24 hours”
sworoc 5:36 pm on September 1, 2010 522 days ago Reply
@gotwake
Thanks on the rental details.
Also, I agree the TV price point is pretty amazing. They should sell a lot of them, for people that don’t already have a similar device that can display internet streaming video to their TV.
Time will tell which of these devices make them the most money, but my bet is on iTunes being the lion’s share of revenue from each of these products. Ping is an interesting idea, but I’m not so sure it’ll ever match what Facebook and Twitter are already doing. Ping seems to be more focused in its purpose, but also more limited in the adoption possibilities.
JPWatkins 5:29 pm on September 1, 2010 522 days ago Reply
Most libraries charge $.99 for a DVD rental, so that won’t fly for a single 30 minute TV episode. It would be right for a movie though. Overall, I’d say the offerings look good.
I want to see the iPad’s $30/month 3G deal with no contract applied to the iPT, or better yet to the iPhone.
Rick-o 10:16 pm on September 1, 2010 522 days ago Reply
I thought it was a pretty good show with lots of new drool worthy goodies announced. I already have my order in for a new ATV and may get the new Nano when my two 2nd gen. shuffles puke out. I use the shuffles quite a bit when outdoors and the new Nano reminds me of a shuffle on steroids. Love the built in clip!
rastard 12:53 am on September 2, 2010 522 days ago Reply
Less than a day into the AppleTV announcement, and the 99 cent rental model is already starting to look less viable:
“For 99 cents, Amazon sells shows, Apple rents them”
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-20015378-56.html
Reading the details, however, it appears that only older episodes are 99 cents. Current episodes are a $1.00 or $2.00 more…
RattyUK 9:19 am on September 2, 2010 522 days ago Reply
@rastard
A couple of things. For Amazon to respond so quickly shows that they are scared of Apple. For Fox and ABC to undercut Apple though Amazon shows how scared they are of Apple taking a hold in this area too.
My own personal feelings are that Apple should have put the iOS experience on the TV. That would have made the box a no brainer and would have produced a nice low end entry into the iOS universe. But Apple must have their reasons for their decision.
Nicu 11:12 am on September 2, 2010 522 days ago Reply
@rattyuk
it seems that Amazon’s price is only for older shows, and even there, they sell at a loss – no special permission from media owners (sorry, I do not remember where to find the link)
rastard 11:35 am on September 2, 2010 522 days ago Reply
@rattyuk
Who cares whether Amazon or Fox/ABC are “scared” of Apple. As Conshmillo already opined upthread, the 99 cent rental model is already somewhat questionable. That a competing 99 cent *purchase* model is announced the same day — regardless of motives — makes it even less attractive.
RattyUK 12:15 pm on September 2, 2010 522 days ago Reply
@rastard
Sorry. Perhaps I didn’t make myself clear. For Amazon to have this knee jerk reaction to the announcement (and don’t tell me that they had this planned for months) then Apple must be doing something right.
AirPlay is the best bit about this product anyway. Without the Apps or iOS then this thing isn’t going to do much for the bottom line.
rastard 3:52 pm on September 2, 2010 521 days ago
@rattyuk
“and don‚Äôt tell me that they had this planned for months”
Sorry then, I’m going to tell you that Amazon most certainly had this planned for months.
I’m definitely not suggesting that they had planned to announce this on September 1st (or had any date in mind for that matter), but instead am saying that in previously setting their pricing, they absolutely would have already modeled a wide array of different price points and set in place conditions under which their pricing would be changed (that’s merchandising 101). In simple terms, something like:
“If we price at $3.99, we’ll sell X and make $X*3.99 in revenue.
If we price at $2.99, we’ll sell Y and make $Y*2.99 in revenue.
If we price at $1.99, we’ll sell Z and make $Z*1.99 in revenue.
If we price at $0.99, we’ll sell XX and make $XX*0.99 in revenue.
If we price at $0.49, we’ll sell YY and make $YY*0.49 in revenue.
Given the projected demand, the optimal intersection of demand and pricing is currently $2.99 per episode. If a new technology or competitor comes into the market changing the demand curve, we can drop as low as $N and still remain profitable (and ZZ would be the impact on our bottom line). Anything below $N would be a loss leader, which we could only sustain for YYY years or YYY total sales.”
Hence, characterizing this as knee-jerk reaction likely isn’t very accurate.
RattyUK 4:02 pm on September 2, 2010 521 days ago
@rastard
“Hence, characterizing this as knee-jerk reaction likely isn‚Äôt very accurate.”
But they pulled the trigger when needed to steal some of the thunder.
We also got Sony’s announcements yesterday “we’re going for iTunes” while today we got a host of Android Tablets from the IFA event. So there is still a lot of sniping around.
I haven’t yet seen an Android tablet that isn’t a KIRF that is available to buy without a contract. It looks like the only way the competitors can hit the iPad price point is to get the carriers to sponsor the cost of the device.
conshmillo 1:11 pm on September 2, 2010 522 days ago Reply
@rattyuk
“My own personal feelings are that Apple should have put the iOS experience on the TV”.
Absolutely right. And not only that, it should include browser too so if I want to watch something directly off the web, there shouldn’t bee some artificial barrier. There are too problems here. One is Apple “rationing of the features” and second is: reason Apple omitted browser in AppleTV is because it wants to fight Google. They are trying to create this applications only world (that’s why you have that Ping thing only in iTunes). They are trying to divert world completely off the browser. In my opinion that is not right approach and it will cost them customers. Eventually it will end up as a word of both, apps and browsers. Browser is not going completely away.
Zee 11:55 am on September 2, 2010 522 days ago Reply
Very quiet around here today, eh? Everybody must be hungover
Steve looked good. He seemed healthy and strong.
And I was happy to hear Jobs says that Woz “his partner in crime” was there.
I think in the future we will be seeing Woz. That’s always possible, you know. Probably a good idea too because they both bring a certain excitement to an event. But I don’t ever imagine seeing Jobs dancing.
And as for the stuff SJ showed off, I’m happy about that too. Everything was good, all round. So even if the economy stumbles we’re going to make money.
caruso2323 5:01 pm on September 2, 2010 521 days ago Reply
@zee
I’d like to see SJ gaining 3-4 pounds, and iPhone 4 supply availability down to 24 Hours like the iPad’s …
If they are lauching iPod Touch’s with lower profits than iP4′s, what gives ? … I am really at loss to figure out what are those components that are NOT IN COMMON with iP4′s between the new IPT’s and the iP4′s …
So … It is not :
- The RETINA display
- Nor the Screens
- Nor the Cameras !
- Nor the A4′s4
So what is it then ? The 3g ?
Hmmmm … Still looking for the “Xee” Chinese gizmo … Maybe they have secured more supplies than Apple did ! … a SAD LOL !
Zee 6:16 pm on September 2, 2010 521 days ago Reply
@caruso2323
maybe iSupply will give a price and parts breakdown… email them…
JPWatkins 1:27 pm on September 2, 2010 522 days ago Reply
Anyone else think ‘Ping’ seems a bit too close to ‘Bing?’
conshmillo 2:05 pm on September 2, 2010 521 days ago Reply
@jpwatkins
“Anyone else think ‚ÄòPing‚Äô seems a bit too close to ‚ÄòBing?‚Äô”
Makes you wonder why they went such a lengths to license that name from golf company. They could call it anything else and not pay the licensing fees.
rastard 2:12 pm on September 2, 2010 521 days ago Reply
@conshmillo
Did they actually have to license the name from the golf company? The whole point of trademarks is to prevent confusion, and I find it really hard to believe that Ping would be successful in arguing that people might mistake iTunes social networking with golf (or table tennis).
Zee 4:43 pm on September 2, 2010 521 days ago Reply
@jpwatkins
My Guess :
What Sonar is to Ping is to Sound Navigation and Ranging of Apple’s Music Social Network. Something like that. But we’ll never know unless they tell us.
iow think like this :
C.R. : Re-verify our range to target … one PING only.
V. : Captain, I -I – I just …
C.R. : Give me a PING, Vasili. One PING only, please.
V. : Aye Captain.
rastard 5:43 pm on September 2, 2010 521 days ago Reply
@zee
When I think of “Ping”, my first association is actually this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ping — which indeed has Sonar technology at the origin of its nomenclature.
Zee 6:39 pm on September 2, 2010 521 days ago Reply
@rastard
word origin : etymology. etymology dictionaries are a lot of fun and very useful too. well maybe not to everyone, but that’s like the most important thing to me. it’s how come i could figure out what nolavabo meant (no/lavabo) and what a cool concept it was. i saw the wiki ref that you’re posting but i grazed over it thinking maybe it was too esoteric. probably worth going back to rather than let it sail past the goal post cuz it didn’t sink in first pass. cheers.
GotWake 2:38 pm on September 2, 2010 521 days ago Reply
I hope an iOS Apple TV is in development. They could have turned it into a really nice gaming system. People wouldn’t have to leave the couch to buy games. I guess the tricky part is this is a touch interface.