Steve Jobs' Hobby, or Afterthought--Part Deux - Simon Applebaum - MediaBizBloggers

The second coming of Apple TV, known as iTV, comes to the marketplace three weeks from now. Smaller, sleeker and much lower-priced than the original Apple TV introduced a few years ago, at $99, iTV represents the latest attempt from Apple to make over-the-top technology a mainstream force with consumers.

On first impression, if this is the best Apple can do to get it TV aspirations out of hobby mode, as company CEO Steve Jobs himself described the original Apple TV, prep the drawing board for further use.

Here's why: everything about iTV--and the way it was unveiled at Apple's media event in San Francisco September 1 continues to bark "Steve Jobs' hobby" at the public. Maybe afterthought is more like it.

Take the way this was launched at the media event itself. Jobs brought out iTV 55 minutes into the presentation, with the words "one more thing." Why didn't he introduce it way earlier, within the first 15-20 minutes? If you wanted to make a statement that iTV is a major commitment on Apple's part, not a hobby anymore, you would not wait 55 minutes in to break the news, or do it so nonchalantly. Result: iTV did not grab the media headlines; Ping, IPod Touch and other developments did.

As for iTV itself, there are three red flags suggesting the odds are against great public demand for this:

1) The device only works with HD sets. Half the TV household universe has an HD set; half don't. If you're in the latter category, tough luck unless you pick up an HD set.

2) The title selection is suspect, especially on TV shows. The only TV programmers on board are Walt Disney/ABC and Fox. No CBS, Time Warner, NBC Universal, Sony, Lionsgate programs or networks involved. Not one word about the movie suppliers. While the rental prices are reasonable--$4.99 for each movie and 99 cents for each TV show--people might be more inclined to buy iTV if most of the major programmers were aboard.

3) A big talent pool which could have made iTV an attractive, perhaps magnetic, purchase to consumers were shut out of the mix. We're talking about the 250,000 IPhone/IPad application developers whose interactive applications could have been adopted or expanded into iTV applications, driving an audience of their mobile users to the party.

Could this third flag end up a huge mistake? Yes. Shut out for now, those IPhone/Pad developers now have a green light to adopt their work for Google TV, for Samsung, other TV set makers and perhaps multi-channel distributors launching interactive TV app stores, and for other over-the-top players as Boxee and Roku.

So what's at play, given that at a public forum earlier this summer, Jobs declared he wasn't interested in upgrading Apple TV? A guess on my part: he and Apple got spooked by Google TV, and growing interest in TV set app stores running YouTube, Netflix and the like. Jobs concluded that without any reaction on his company's part, over-the-top TV would be a lost opportunity.

What we'll start learning later this month is, in consumer's eyes, Apple TV dressed as iTV continues an afterthought in their eyes as it looks to Steve Jobs. Other observations from the passing parade: **Samsung and Vizio launched new advertising campaigns for their HDTV sets over the Labor Day weekend on ESPN and other networks. Why take note? Interactive TV applications are the featured attraction on these ads, such as Facebook, Twitter and Flicker. In Vizio's case, their interactive apps are showcased with Beyonce's help. That's a first. Separately, Samsung's "Free The TV Challenge," highlighted in our recent column on interactive TV app stores, now has drawn interest from about 700 developers.

**Diversity Week returns next week to New York after a year's absence, thanks to the realization by all involved that it's more important than ever to showcase diversity in television, and what can be done to expand what's possible there. Great to see people realize it was a mistake not to have such a week. Now that Diversity Week is back, do your part to support it.

**Nice move by Spike TV to run Hawaii Five-O daytime marathons in prep for the new version on CBS. Morton Stevens' theme and Reza Badayi's title montage remain medium milestones, and inspiration for series producers to fight for audience-provoking, minute-long or more title sequences in their product. Conversely, Spike did its crowd a disservice by squeezing Five-0's great end credits (police car light in season one/state natives paddling the waves after that) and drowning out Stevens' theme with promos. Was that necessary? Be there, aloha.

Until the next time, stay well and stay tuned!

Simon Applebaum is host/producer ofTomorrow Will Be Televised, the Internet radio/podcast-distributed program covering the TV scene. Tomorrowruns live Mondays/Fridays at 3 p.m. Eastern time, noon Pacific time, on BlogTalk Radio. Replays are available 24/7 at www.blogtalkradio.com/simonapple04 , and on podcast through ITunes.com, Zune.net and 16 other Web download sites arranged by Sonibyte. Have a question or comment? Get it to simonapple04@yahoo.com, or on Tomorrow Will Be Televised's Facebook group page.

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