Newsweek and the BBC are reporting that Google is in discussions with Apple to provide content for its iTV device. Apple's iTV is expected to launch early next year, and will be a small box that lets users stream videos from their computers to their television sets.Google could provide short, user-generated clips from its Google Video site, or even premium full-length TV shows and movies. In that case, Google and Apple would be competing to sell some of the same videos to users to play back on the same device. But I think it makes sense to give viewers a choice of download stores for a product like the iTV.
Apple has long considered itself a hardware manufacturer that happens to make software (kind of the opposite of Microsoft). The iTV could be a great way to enter the living room, but it won't work if Apple doesn't manage to create the perfect user experience with movie downloads.
Right now, studios are partnering with CinemaNow, MovieLink, Yahoo TV, Google, Guba, and others to make content available. If they all jump on the Apple bandwagon and sign up for iTunes, fine. But if they don't, then the iTV is nothing more than a $300 box for downloading 75 movies and some TV shows. Yeah, I know, it's not likely that'll happen, but I'm optimistic that these talks with Google will lead somewhere.
1. Its not often that you see Apple opening its doors to other companies to compete with them on selling online video and music, even if they do receive a mutual benefit.
Be very intersting to see how this pans out, wouldn't be good news for youtube.
Posted at 8:35AM on Sep 18th 2006 by Chris Tew