Comments on: Why Apple TV Could be a game changer https://alexiskold.net/2015/09/10/why-apple-tv-could-be-a-game-changer/ Thoughts on Tech Startups and Venture Capital Wed, 23 Jan 2019 06:52:06 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: whiteboxresearch https://alexiskold.net/2015/09/10/why-apple-tv-could-be-a-game-changer/#comment-25087 Sun, 13 Sep 2015 18:55:16 +0000 http://alexiskold.net/?p=1347#comment-25087 Totally agree. I believe you will see the apps become even more “distributed” where shows, movies and productions have their own apps that engage viewers to become participants. These apps could even be “sponsored by” companies. So you could imagine an app for a show like Iconoclast sponsored by a vodka company where viewers are interacting through a Twitter like stream with the guests either while the show is on or before or after providing content questions or an having an AMA type of thing. Take this a step further and introduce an Apple “iVR” and I can be in the first row of a Foo Fighters concert with all my friends interacting through the App. Long Apple!

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]]> By: Alex Iskold https://alexiskold.net/2015/09/10/why-apple-tv-could-be-a-game-changer/#comment-25081 Thu, 10 Sep 2015 11:36:47 +0000 http://alexiskold.net/?p=1347#comment-25081 Totally agree. I think this is a great generalization of Apple strategy. Clearly it has a plan for integrating technology cohesively in all aspects of our lives.

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]]> By: JB Zimmerman (@jbzimmerman) https://alexiskold.net/2015/09/10/why-apple-tv-could-be-a-game-changer/#comment-25079 Thu, 10 Sep 2015 03:11:34 +0000 http://alexiskold.net/?p=1347#comment-25079 I think it’s even more long play than that. Apple has, for quite some time, been increasing its footprint in two of the three types of computing I like to consider. Call them ‘environmental computing’, ‘task computing’ and ‘ubiquitous computing.’ The middle one, task computing, is what every company understands well. It’s laptops and it’s (now) tablets, especially enterprise tablets like Surface and now iPad Pro. It’s using a dedicated computing device wherever you happen to be to accomplish a task.

‘Environmental computing’ is basically the living room, but not just there. It means having your environment ready to compute for you. Between AppleTV and AirPlay, this was the foothold. They have a computing hub in your house which can accept media streams from devices. They did this through slow and patient iterations – not just for functionality, but for security. Note that they stretched ATV3 for a couple years, and nobody cracked it. This is critical for not only the licensed content negotiations, but also if it’s going to be your primary home environmental computing hub. Now, they get it into your house by selling you entertainment – both media and gaming (see ATV announcement today). But once there, it has Siri now, and it has HomeKit and AirPlay – and it’s poised to be your default ‘by voice or by remote or by other input device’ search and display computing environment. “Computer, I’m going to bed.” (Siri sets thermostat, light scene, turns off downstairs equipment, sets alarm, puts phone on voice mail, etc.)

The final third is ubiquitous computing. You need some form of device (presently) to ensure that you can be identified, tracked and authenticated. Phones are one way – ApplePay is an example. But think about it, right now, we do a bunch of computing directly on our phones – task computing – which we probably would be happy to do on whatever wall-sized computing display was nearby. But even if we did that, we need somewhere to hold our auth keys and etc. Watch is the next iteration of this, especially when it can break the iPhone tether. Watch is basically a data acquisition device (exercise, health, location, sound, behavior, etc.) and a control/auth device (yes I’m me, I have the watch with my ssh key/apple pay token/etc in it) and a communications device to get that data where it’s needed.

Put it together, and you have the star trek computing environment (for lack of a better term). Apple is making progress towards the time when only limited niche specific task computing is done on devices – laptops/tablets even desktops – and when most everyday consumer computing tasks are done on environmental computers or the cloud, communicated and authenticated by ubiquitous devices.

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