AppleTV Question posed to Steve Jobs

[ajhill]

As an interested shareholder I attended the meeting and found it very interesting.

First off, my question, during the Q&A was concerned HD content for the iTunes store (for AppleTv use of course) and the possibility of being able to rent videos through the AppleTV as well:

"When a shareholder asked Jobs for high-definition video content on iTunes and asked if his Apple TV could allow him to rent movies, the CEO smiled. 'One never knows,' he said cryptically."

Now that may seem like an artful dodge, but what didn't get reported was when a question that another shareholder asked as to whether or not Apple was going to be getting into the medical data collection field. To which questions Steve Jobs flat out told him, no we are not.

So a cryptic "One never knows" probably means it's only a matter of time (hopefully short) until these features are present in the AppleTV universe.


After watching all that transpired it was easy to see why Steve Jobs is CEO of Apple Inc. and the special interest hacks are, well, special interest hacks.

It's time to get past the options issue. The Apple Board is satisfied, the SEC is satisfied, the independent investigators are satisfied and perhaps MOST IMPORTANTLY almost all of the shareholders in the room were satisfied. And as one of those shareholders that everyone is trying to protect, all I can say is: Chill out people! Go out and start making a few phone calls on your new iPhones... Now that would make me happy!

 

[pdpfilms]

That's a good point, but one must keep in mind that the AppleTV is an area of consumer interest, whereas the medical field is not. Even if the AppleTV had hit the end of the line, Jobs would likely give a similar answer, if only to maintain interest for the product.

 

[neven]

I don't think there's any doubt that they're considering this. The two big areas of disagreement between Apple and the studios are probably the pricing (they'll want tiered, high prices, Steve won't) and Steve assuring them that the rental protection technology won't be broken and abused right away.

 

[mustard]

I don't think there's any doubt that they're considering this. The two big areas of disagreement between Apple and the studios are probably the pricing (they'll want tiered, high prices, Steve won't) and Steve assuring them that the rental protection technology won't be broken and abused right away.

I don't think that it will be a hard fight to win being that their is already "on demand" services for HBO and the like as well as Amazon's Service (forgot the name) and the crown jewel being Blockbuster and the likes.

Most of the industry should be more concerned with the ripping of DVD's rather than the removal of DRM being that it is currently so easy to rip a DVD & break copy protection.

 

[ajhill]

I don't think that it will be a hard fight to win being that their is already "on demand" services for HBO and the like as well as Amazon's Service (forgot the name) and the crown jewel being Blockbuster and the likes.

Most of the industry should be more concerned with the ripping of DVD's rather than the removal of DRM being that it is currently so easy to rip a DVD & break copy protection.

In the past year Apple's Stock price is UP by 50% and Blockbuster DOWN by 50%. The problem with a Blockbuster download service is that the download has nowhere to go. Who wants to watch TV on a computer. With the price of big screens coming down so fast, who'd want to watch on a small screen?

Xbox is the only technology right now even close. And if I could hear the movie over all the racket that the Xbox makes it might actually be enjoyable.

iPhone aside, 2007 looks to be the perfect storm of profits for Apple. Everything they sell is doing well, Macs, laptops, imacs, ipods, downloads. And to add iPhone and AppleTV on top, wow. It finally looks like we mac users could finally get some respect, if not a sizable marketshare going into '08. Oh, I almost forgot, Steve Jobs made a special point to bring up Leopard and mention that it was really going to be amazing. Unfortunately he wouldn't elaborate...guess we'll just have to wait...