| Friday, April 26, 2002 |
17:24 - Turn On Your Mind
http://www.macobserver.com/forums/viewtopic.php?topic=5148&forum=1&10
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There's a lively discussion going on over at the Mac Observer Forums, over the prospect of Apple creating a set-top box for digital TV. (Think TiVo with MPEG-4, DVD burning, IP file sharing and broadcasting, and Mac-side control.)
Opinion is swaying back and forth-- there are the pros and the cons, and both have their merits. But there's one post out of the clamor that just leaped out at me, by the user "unpeople":
it won't happen, for one very simple reason: steve jobs doesn't like tv
if you understand the man, you understand the plan: jobs believes, rightly, that computers are for turning on the mind, while tv turns off the mind... that's why apple's digital hub is all about creative devices, like digital cameras and camcorders; passive devices, like game consoles and tv tuners don't fit the profile (one could argue that the ipod is a passive device, but music is the perfect background for the creative process)
i could be totally wrong, of course, and apple could announce tomorrow that it's jumping head-first into the "convergence" market, but i'd be willing to bet big money that
(a) they won't
(b) microsoft will
(c) time will show that apple made the right choice
I like that piece of insight. It certainly explains a lot.
Naturally, you'll never gain a 100% market share appealing to the creators instead of the consumers-- the latter account for a tiny percentage of the world at large. And come to think of it, that percentage is reflected pretty clearly in the market-share percentage of the Mac.
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