JustinFlood.com

AppleTV – Turning a Hobby into a Business.

Since the release of AppleTV, Apple CEO Steve Jobs has maintained that it isn’t yet a serious business venture for Apple, but more of a “hobby”.   For some this is simply a way of explaining away a less-than-successful product, but I think Jobs is being more honest about it than we think.

It IS a hobby to them, but I think it’s likely that you’ll see the AppleTV going from a hobby to a business soon.  Very soon.

Jason Calacanis recently talked about how Apple is going to go into the Television business,  making flat panel TVs.  While I’m sure they have a few Apple flat panels in the lab, there is no freakin’ way they’re ever going to get themselves into such a commoditized business.   They would have to compete with EVERY television maker out there, and there just is no way for them to grab enough marketshare to make it worth it.  In a world where $700 Vizio HDTVs are King,  there is no way for Apple to add enough value to make a $2000+ TV worth it to most people, which is likely where they would want to place it in the price structure.  I still think the set-top box is the way for them to go.

Why?  Find out after the jump.

More »

Tags: Apple, AppleTV

Amazon unleashes it’s Hulu / AppleTV streaming competitior

I was browsing through Amazon a few minutes ago and I apparently stumbled upon something new and quite awesome.  Apparently Amazon’s new streaming video service has gone live, now called “Amazon Video on Demand”, and I have to say it really is fantastic.  It’s flash-based and compatible with Macs and PCs (possibly Linux as well, but I have not yet been able to test it in a Linux environment).   The quality seems to be a bit higher than Hulu, and the selection is already quite good with many new television and recently released movies available for instant streaming.   My quick look through the library revealed recently released movies like “Vantage Point”, “21″, “Jumper”, and “The Bucket List” available for rental for $3.99.  The television library is just as good with many episodes running for $1.99, and some even streaming for free. Here is a screenshot of my playing a free episode of the hit show “Heroes”

All movies and television shows allow you to watch 1-2 minutes of the content before paying, letting you decide what looks good, and what does not.  According to some quick research on the topic, Amazon has an instantly available library of over 40,000 movies and television shows ready to go.

Here’s hoping that like Netflix, Amazon will soon bring this service to set top boxes like the Xbox 360, and Roku’s Netflix box.  This is way more convenient than Apple’s AppleTV and with much better selection than free sources like Hulu.

Give it a try, I think you’ll really like it.

Tags: Amazon, AppleTV, Hulu, iTunes, Netflix