Come for the Ride!

Jobs just announced some additional features for Apple TV 2. $229 for the box, various prices between $3 – $5 for movie and HD rentals. Granted, the display looks as great as any other Apple product, but why introduce yet another mediocre service that doesn’t provide anything new?

The images here were captured by Engadget, who provided the live keynote coverage for MacWorld 2008. What these pictures show is just another service competing for our movie business, but not necessarily all that well.

As a consumer, what I want is a Netflix pricing model with the convenience of HD quality and instant downloads. As far as I can tell, the technology for everything I want is all here, what is missing is some cooperative work between the companies to come out with a platform that can make them all more money.

Let’s face it:

Netflix – Thanks for your unlimited movies online, but I want HD quality on my TV instantly if you can provide it.

Blockbuster – You had some competitive advantages before… but your lack of connection with reality has priced yourselves out of the game. Thanks for alienating your customers.

Xbox Live – I like the service but your selection for movies that appeals to everyone is weak. If it didn’t take 12 hours to download a HD movie onto my tiny 20gig hard drive, I may use your movie service more.

TiVo - Can you offer faster downloads? What’s the difference of waiting a day for a movie download vs. waiting a day for Netflix to deliver the same movie in the mail?

Comcast – I guess it’s true… he who controls the bandwidth can decide on the speed at which everything is connected. You guys have a great on demand network and the movies actually come within minutes… but the pricing structure really has to change. I would rather wait on Netflix rather than paying $20+ for 5 movies.

Apple TV – Thanks for coming up with something that doesn’t offer much more from the list above. It’s great I can transfer movies between my Apple products, but how about a different pricing model that actually makes the service appealing? I already have a number of choices above that does pretty much the same thing. So what’s urging me to make the switch?

Although this is one industry that requires a lot of the major companies to come together to get the deals to work, I’m still waiting for someone out there to get this right.