Slimebeast on 27 October 2012
| Soleron said: Here are the key obstacles to this vision: - Content licenses. Right now, only Netflix has something approaching 'everything' a consumer would want to play. If even a small fraction of that is missing, the value of the system drops dramatically. The consumer will not want to go to a different platform or provider for the last 20% of their shows or movies, they just won't buy in at all. - Even if the licenses line up, that will only be the US. Abroad, licenses are horribly fragmented and restrctive, locking out for example Europe. - Even if the licenses are worldwide, the DRM demanded by the content companies will be so great and the price premium so high that they won't be attractive to consumers - Nintendo doesn't want to control your living room. An argument can be made for the other companies, but Nintendo's content provision has always been poor, online system very limited, and t"giving up control of the TV" is actually their core strategy with the U Pad. - Despite SmartGlass's claims, I imagine the experience difference between different tablets and machines will be a fragmented mess, with features arbitrarily unimplemented or locked out. - Consumers will not stand for yearly or semi-yearly upgrades. A Smart TV better be upgradeable for 5-10 years with all the latest content, features and hardware support or they risk drawing a short straw and getting a very poor experience after launch. I'm sure TV companies' financial projections rely on much faster TV upgrades than that, so we will see more than just Sony go into the red. - It isn't too late for Apple, but Apple have shown want it all their way or nothing. They cannot work with multiple third parties or support non-Apple devices being part of the chain, so they will struggle to do everything the consumer would want from a system and still have the cost be something reasonable. |
So does this mean that the traditional cable channels are pretty safe for the foreseeable future? That it's simply very hard for an outside player (Apple, MS, Samsung, Sony etc) to come in and revolutionize and dominate the living room. Am I understanding it right (is this a correct conclusion to draw from what you wrote)?
