Airplay

Apple's new Apple TV.  Apple's new iPad OS 4.2.  They seem like completely different products, but in reality they complete each other.  With iOS 4.2 iPad's can use a new feature called AirPlay.  AirPlay is a wireless streaming connection that allows you to stream any iOS compatible video to the Apple TV (and presumably any other iOS device if you can SSH into it, crash the spring board and install lowtide.ipa).  Why is this significant at all?  Well this would be one of the first real competiters to wireless HDMI.  It streams at 720p and many critics are already raving about the superior frame rate that AirPlay has compared to wireless HDMI.

There is another important thing about AirPlay.  It is all the new Apple TV has.  Let's take a look back to 2007 when the Apple TV was just released.  Everyone thought it was going to succeed and create a new thriving market.  It didn't.  What happened was it co-existed in a niche market along with the Tivo and Windows Media Center.  However, AirPlay changes everything.  This is Apple's go-to-market strategy for Apple TV.  This is how Apple will reinvent the television.  The possibilities are endless.  AirPlay 1.0 only allows us to stream video when we push the AirPlay button, but AirPlay 1.1 could use a RFD to detect when you are in range of an Apple TV and stream a video automatically (of course you could turn this all of in the settings).  It could get even bigger.  AirPlay 2.0 could allow you to stream more complex types of media to your Apple TV.  You could stream E-books, apps, even games.

Apple has a winner on their hands.  All they need to do is to keep on innovating.  As long as they keep on updating AirPlay and the Apple TV, there is no limit for Apple's reach into the living room.  Apple TV and AirPlay are more products that change everything, but this time.  It's for the better.

More thoughts on flash.

There is tension between two corporate giants (Adobe and Apple), who are fighting over market dominance. First let me talk about what Flash is.  Flash is a multimedia development platform that use to be owned my Macromedia until Adobe bought it.  It used to be used in 95% of the web, but that number has significantly decreased since Apple decided to not support Flash in it's iOS products.  If you want to read Apple's thoughts on flash you can just Click here.   Unlike what Steve Jobs says in his letter on flash (the link I just mentioned), the reason he will not support Flash is not because it is buggy, he will not support Flash because it does not help him gain market dominance.

Steve Jobs knows a lot about developers.  He knows that they make or break a platform, however if that platform is the Internet then there is no advantage to any given platform since all platforms can visit the Internet.  He knew that in order to give iOS exclusivity, he needed to make sure that when a developer makes an application for an iPhone, it will be difficult to port that application to other devices.  That way they will only develop applications for iOS.  I understand how that platform exclusivity idea works, however by eliminating Flash from the iPhone, it is now missing a feature that many people need.

Since there is no Flash on iPhone, you might think that iOS is doomed.  It's missing so much video content on the web.  It is missing so many games on the web.  However, if you really think hard.  The iPhone isn't missing any content.  Steve Jobs wouldn't allow that to happen.  After all, the iPhone is a content consuming device, not a content producing one, so it would be illogical for him to strip the iPhone of content.  Now you may ask, "Where will the iPhone content that computers can get via a flash player?"  They will get it from iTunes.  I believe that this is the second reason why Steve Jobs did not allow Flash on the iPhone.  It is because Apple get's payed to distribute premium content through iTunes.  So it will not allow you to get premium content on the iPhone without first going through iTunes in some way (be it an app, audio book, song, movie, ect.).  Any user generated content (like the content on Youtube) can freely stream to the iPhone directly, since Apple cannot sell user generated content, unless it wants to make record deals with everyone on Youtube.  Let me give you some examples. If I want to play the game Robot Unicorn Attack on my computer, I can just find a flash site that is hosting the code that will allow me to play it for free.  However on an iOS device, I must pay one dollar on the App Store.  25 cents goes to Apple, and 75 cents goes to the site that is hosting the code.  If Apple were to allow Flash it would be losing that 25 cents (and a lot more) every single second.

Right now, it seems that Apple is all good to go.  It has a healthy market share of smart phones.  It is ready to make Apple millions since it can only get premium content through iTunes.  Except for one thing.  Skyfire.  Skyfire is single handily bringing Apple's kingdom down.  Skyfire is an application that allows users to view Flash videos by converting them into HTML on the fly.  HTML is one of the few types of web video an iPhone can view.  Sorry Apple.  What's your excuse this time?