How Steve Jobs Will Destroy Civilization

http://wmbriggs.com/blog/?p=2854 ^ | William M. Briggs

[mattstat]

September 1, 2012

Steve Jobs unveils the Apple TV, a device which allows “consumers” to relieve themselves of the burden of owning movies and television shows.

Previously, if people wanted to possess a movie or a television series, they would be forced buy a video cassette or DVD version, or they would have to suffer the inconvenience of recording these events on a tape or digital video recorder. Once either version was in hand, then, via direct playback or by running the recording, consumers could then watch these programs as many times as desired.

The Apple TV changes everything. In what industry insiders are calling “iTunes for Television,” the Apple TV lets people rent movies and TV shows, and allows them to pay for each time they view a program. Mr Jobs explained, “Why buy when you can rent?”

Jeff Blake, President of Sony Pictures, a company which had previously offered a rival service, hailed the Apple innovation. “The movie and television industry applauds Apple’s amazing new technology. Never before have consumers been offered such an excitingly wide range of methods of paying for content. Sony is right there with them.”...

June 8, 2012

Jobs announces the Apple Bowdler, an iPad “app” which will electronically—and quite seamlessly—allow all text documents, such as books, stored on the iPad to be remotely improved...

[Dem Guard]

And this will destroy civilization? ;-)

[driftdiver]

“Mr Jobs explained, “Why buy when you can rent?” “

Renting is original?

[fso301]

Somehow I don’t think my internet provider would much appreciate many of its customers simultaneously downloading full length HD movies.

[Drawsing]

This is satire, folks.

[DugwayDuke]

“Never before have consumers been offered such an excitingly wide range of methods of paying for content.”

Finding new ways to get consumers to ‘pay’ is always exciting to some people. My question is exactly what new movies or tv shows are worth paying for? Looks to me like a better business model would be based upon providing a product that consumers really want rather than trying to find a new way for consumers to pay for something they don’t want.

[pgyanke]

Why rent when much of it is free? Between sites like Hulu, Fancast and Blinkx you can find most anything. I sure don’t plan to pay $1/episode nor $4/movie rental when I have unlimited views with Netflix for $9/month.

[LibLieSlayer]

Some people rent movies... mostly to clone copies and that is stealing... which will drive apple and jobs into eventual failure.. if you can't hold it in your hands and watch it whenever you want to... like after a hurricane when there is no service of any kind... it ain't selling in my home.

BluRay is the way... streaming has its purpose but America will not accept this as the norm... it only enrichens the hollywerd pervs that make movies... many of which are awful to begin with.

LLS

[central_va]

How Steve Jobs Will Destroy Civilization

That would be impossible, since Bill Gates already has.

[CanaGuy]

I think I attended a broadcast/cable convention 20 years ago that touted “Pay per view”. In my mind, the technology is independent of the payload concept.

[sueuprising]

That would be impossible, since Bill Gates already has. You have a point. The damage was already done. It probably really started with the radio in the '20s. From there our Western culture has taken a downturn.

[sarasota]

self ping

[PreciousLiberty]

“This is satire, folks.”

Poorly written, incoherent, confused satire. But satire nonetheless.

[dajeeps]

I think Obama/Pelosi/Reid have beat Jobs to the punch.

[Leo Farnsworth]

I know this is satire.

BUT Apple TV exists, and has for at least three years.

[chrisser]

So when you pay to view TV shows and movies, they’re commercial-free, right?

[MrEdd]

How Steve Jobs Will Destroy Civilization / or "How I Wrecked Our Market Share, But Made iPple Investors Love Me"

[Jlazoon]

“BUT Apple TV exists, and has for at least three years.”

Yea, but this one has an A4 chip and runs IOS. Here’s the kicker, if anyone watched the keynote and really paid attention, they would have noticed this little piece of technology which is slated to be released in November for iPads, iPhones, the and iPod Touch. <——120 million units worldwide.

“AirPlay” is a feature which allows the user to stream audio, video, and pictures to a TV screen (AppleTV) from an iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad. Now since Apple loves to work slowly, my guess is they eventually open up “AirPlay” to the developers and the developers implement AirPlay right into all those apps currently on iTunes. This would mean such apps as games, MLB.tv, and HULU+ would be available for your television. In this case, Apple would not need start a whole new apps store just for the AppleTV. The app would use the iPad, iPhone, or the iPod Touch to decode the information, gaming video is projected onto the television screen, and the device touchscreen is used as your gamepad.

Think of all those video apps on your device being projected on your TV screen from the click of a button. This is what they announced. Not the AppleTV.

[Leo Farnsworth]

I play movies and TV shows on my TV from my iPod.

I use a cable.

[conservativeharleyguy]

"...a better business model would be based upon providing a product that consumers really want rather than trying to find a new way for consumers to pay for something they don’t want..."

Yup. Market Pull vs. Product Push.

Pull is many times more effective, but it's "hard" (i.e. expensive) to figure out what the market really needs/wants, so lazy companies just crank out (push) their latest, greatest mousetrap, secure in the knowledge that a certain segment of the market will buy anything with a multi-colored fruit logo, just because their friends think it's "cool".