Why did Apple pre-announce the iTV?
If you don’t know what the Apple ‘iTV’ is, take a look at the Engadget posting: Hands-on with the Apple iTV prototype.
Steve Jobs at the ‘It’s Showtime’ event: “But there is one last thing that I’d like to talk to you about today. Now this next thing is a little unusual for us. It’s a sneak peak of a product that will be announced in the first calendar quarter of 2007. We usually keep things pretty corralled until we’re ready to ship them but in this case, I think it completes the story and to understand where we’re going I’d like you to get a sneak peak of this. So we decided to go ahead and show it to you today.”
My Translation: “Guys - you know that we never, never, never, pre-announce products. There is an important reason why I am doing this today. You see, I’m having a tough time getting the major studios to buy-in to our online movie pricing plan. They have this notion that an online movie should cost almost the same as a DVD, which is totally bogus. They see digital movie sales as an opportunity to increase their margins, and it wouldn’t surprise me if the big DVD sellers like WalMart and Target are putting pressure on them. CD sales are way down - we’re already the fifth largest seller of music, regardless of the distribution format! The reason that Amazon was able to launch with everbody, basically, is their pricing structure. Go take a look at it and tell me why the !@#$ you’d buy a digital movie from Amazon for almost the same price as a DVD from WalMart? Plus, have you checked out their user experience? Boy, does it suck. And, it’s Windows only, don’t forget about that. The way to get the major studios back to the table and accept our consumer-friendly terms is to expose our movie product roadmap to the public, and get the consumers on our side. The major studios will come around, just you wait and see! Why would you buy movies anywhere else with the tight integration between your computer, your iPod, and soon - your television? We’re going to achieve market dominance with movies, just as we have with music and television programs. Get out there and talk up the iTV and make it known that you want to buy movies from us. Then, and only then will you be able to buy ‘Failure to Launch’ for less than $16.87 online! We’ll see if it’s even worth $9.99 - I have my doubts. By the way - you know, we’re going to have to pre-announce our iPhone next year, as well, because of the damn FCC filing period.”
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