Apple’s much anticipated press event is only less than 24 hours from now, and I’m looking forward to several potential announcements: iTunes in the cloud, TV show rentals, a redone Apple TV (renamed iTV), and a revamped iPod Touch.  However, I’m eyeing two markets in particular where Apple can make significant inroads: Video calling and console gaming. (more…)

There’s little doubt that TV and the internet world will eventually merge, and Google and Apple are both making efforts in that direction. Devices based on Google TV are launching this fall, and Apple is expected to launch a new, stronger version of its Apple TV (now dubbed iTV) sometime next year… (more…)

Apple likes to control the end-to-end user experience by integrating hardware and software. A good example is the iPhone (contrast this with Android-powered phones, for which Google only makes the operating system but third-party manufacturers such as Motorola and HTC make the devices). The home entertainment space poses a potential problem for Apple because in order to integrate vertically, Apple needs to make the TV itself. Techcrunch has even suggested that Apple would launch its own TV (as opposed to a set-top box) at some point and thus bypass the problem of fragmentation altogether… (more…)

Internet video has the media industry worried. DVD sales, which are projected at $17 billion today, are expected to slow down substantially in the next few years, as online streaming picks up momentum. In the meanwhile, Avatar, with its record breaking sales of $2.2 billion, has injected new hopes in the industry. Would movies like Avatar be enough to save the sinking ship? (more…)

Mobile TV has analysts excited. ABI Research estimates that mobile TV will have 43 million subscribers by 2013, and research firm TeleAnalytics estimates 50 million mobile TV users in North America by the same year. But so far mobile TV has not nearly lived up to the hype. Qualcomm’s FLO TV, the technology used behind the current market leaders — AT&T’s Mobile TV and Verizon’s V Cast — still isn’t making money. For this holiday… Continue reading

GigaOm’s NewTeeVee Live event, which explores the future of TV, took place in San Francisco today. Though there were a number of interesting demos and presentations, three really stood out as being most likely to shape how we watch TV in the immediate future.

The first… Continue Reading

Rumors surfaced this week that Apple is in the process of putting together a $30-a-month iTunes TV offering. This rumored iTunes TV is supposedly something altogether different from the currently available Apple TV.

Apple TV is a piece of hardware that makes it easy to watch… Continue Reading