Jobs: Apple TV a hobby because there's no market - Page 3

Well said. I love my AppleTV. I still think they're missing out on a lot of potential sales due to a poor marketing strategy for it. Most people don't know what it is and what it does and that is Apple's fault. I just hope they don't ever scrap the whole thing.

Baked in? Is iAd any different than the (Google) AdMob SDK for iPhone?


They sure seemed to focus a little on advertising:



"$70 billion dollars: annual advertising spent in the US alone on TV. Still no better medium to reach a wider and better audience than television."


Google gets the vast majority of their income from ads. What do they earn from YouTube? Maps? GMail?

How would that be done, unless Jobs can demonstrate to the content providers that his model will make them more money? Right now, content providers get ad revenue AND carriage fee revenues from every subscriber. Consider that ESPN alone gets ~$4 per month in carriage fees from nearly every cable/satellite subscriber in the U.S.

Throwing content onto the internet using an ad-supported model is simply not tenable. That's why Hulu and other sites are looking into subscription approaches. If Apple can serve as a content aggregator and set an attractive pricing model for consumers and content providers alike, then they have many different channels by which they can deliver programming to consumers. That's where their server farm and Apple TV could play a role, as you mentioned.

Problem with the internet TV solutions to date is the simple reality that most people simply prefer to watch TV content on TVs, and most TVs aren't networked. If you can present a solution that's easy to use, easy to fit into a living room, and delivers compelling content, then you might see some change on the horizon. It's not about trying to shoehorn a PC into an entertainment center. The failure to recognize this reality by Microsoft et al is the reason why media PCs have been a market failure. And the issue with Google TV is that there's no compelling revenue model behind it that will entice content providers to get on board. TV manufacturers are on board because it's another feature to add to the checklist.


Cable though has the bandwidth to reliably deliver HD content in real time. Most household internet connections don't.

One's part of the OS. One isn't.


You obviously didn't get the point of the slide. Yes, TV is the biggest ad market. But does not mean Google is going to be pushing ads out to displace TV ads. They are clearly aiming at shifting traffic towards web based services which will drive ad revenue.

I never disputed they make money from ads. I do challenge the idea that Google TV is an ad based platform and that it might push out ads (a common misconception in these parts). There is no evidence for that assertion.

I completely agree with Steve; you cannot get people to spend money on a set top box in a market that's dominantly subscription-based where the box is free with the service.

That said, what Steve is ignoring is that If you want to sell people a box that's just a glorified storefront for buying and renting content, the trick is to make that the secondary feature to something else they were going to purchase anyhow. Like a game console. Or a Blu-Ray/DVD Player. This is the strategy Netflix, Amazon, Vudu, and Blockbuster are using to get themselves in the homes of millions of customers who would never pay money for a box just to rent movies.

And that's what's happening with Google TV. They don't expect you to run out and get a Google TV box. Eventually though, when you want to upgrade your box that the cable company gives you maybe you ask them for a Google TV box. Or you buy a TV or Blu-Ray player running Google TV. The concept is really misunderstood by many people. It's not a box. It's an OS that will drive many boxes.