The MacBook Air may have grabbed all the headlines at Steve Jobs' Macworld 2008 keynote on Tuesday, but it's the announcement of a revamped Apple TV and iTunes movie rentals that could prove more significant in the long run.
For Apple is hoping to pull off the same neat trick it did with the iPod and iTunes - to offer a simple, unified end-to-end user experience that could finally galvanise the nascent movie downloads industry, while giving itself the lion's share.
There are also obvious parallels in the high definition format wars too. While the consumer electronics industry was trying - and failing - to persuade music buyers to choose between Super Audio CD and DVD-Audio, Apple arguably marched in and stole music from beneath them with its iPod and iTunes combo.
Apple could do the same for Blu-ray and HD DVD, sidelining, then killing optical media as the future delivery platform for movie content. Industry pundits - including Microsoft chairman Bill Gates - have already predicted the demise of optical disc. Apple could be the one that sticks in the knife and brings it to a premature, but well-deserved end.
We're going to take a look at how Apple TV and iTunes movie rentals will deliver that killer blow in two separate articles:
del.icio.us
Digg
reddit!
Facebook
Stumbleupon
Newsvine
Tell us what you think
You need to Log in or register to post comments