Interesting article.You may also be interested to know that the next Real Player in Network Marketing will prelaunch in March, 2007, and is looking for Founding Distributors. www.PreLaunchMLM.com
I've heard about this. Not much of March left over, though. It will be interesting to hear how it stacks up.
Thanks for the comment!
Carl
Huh, Real is still in business? Who knew... 
Thanks for writing down what's been rattling around in my head for awhile now. At first I didn't "get" the Apple TV, but it began to dawn on me that with as little TV as I watch in the first place, I could break even on the ATV and 3-4 season passes of the few shows I DO watch within a few months, given the insane price of Comcast's cable TV service here in NE Mass.
I'd still have to pay for the broadband of course, but then I'd at least have DSL as a reasonable alternative (that is if Verizon ever gets off its ass and offers their FIOS service here).
Over at Highbrid Nation we have been talking the Apple TV and how unimpressed we are with it. I just don't believe that most people will be able to get much out of it. Too many issues to deal with. I'll likely be a while before I make such an investment.
I think your longer-term projection is right on, especially when you dissect the reasons why Apple did not include support for SD or 4x3 TVs, or a DVR, or a DVD player. Unlike many, including Evorgleb, who are still thinking in-the-box and therefore can't get it, Apple is breaking down industries by looking at what the consumer really wants in their media experiences: that the consumer wants to freely choose and pay for exactly what they want (i.e. unbundled), that the consumer wants to consume it at any time on a high quality displays/speakers without a computer directly attached, and that the consumer wants to also consume it at any time on-the-go.
When the iPhone and next-gen video iPod are released with larger screens for on-the-go, and when Apple turns on direct AppleTV-to-iTS access (along with a remote control that has a virtual keypad for text entry - sound familiar?), maybe more people will begin to 'get' this vision that you've just explained.
With regard to advertising/ marketing, I expect Apple to soon be offering free "discovery" TV episodes instead of just trailers direct to the Apple TV (the way iTS offers free songs today). The recent WSJ article on the value of the iTS front page will be amplified when that front page starts showing up on AppleTV.
Thanks again for your insights.
I think most of us will given the opportunity move to alternative sources for TV. Cable when it first arrived promised customers no commercials since we were paying for the cable.
No one especially the cable companies seem to remember that promise which was the reason most early adopters switched to cable.
Every month I pay my I hope for some competitor to come along and give me an affordable alternative so I can divorce the cable company.
Commenting by HaloScan
