Got Netflix? Maybe not for long. My bet is that Apple is about to throw in the towel when it comes to streaming media.
Sure, they’ll still give you some movies and TV shows to buy. But the handwriting is on the wall. No, Netflix didn’t win. In fact, they’re about to lose big time as the world of streaming media changes.
Why? How? Because apps rule.
Television networks and movie producers have begun to figure out that they can’t trust an independent third party to make them rich again (after all, we paid once to see the movies in theaters, then bought the DVD, and we waded through commercials to see TV shows that get re-run on half a dozen different channels).
With their own apps they can bypass the middleman, not stop at Go, collect all the money for themselves, and not pay someone else to distribute their wares. Apple makes it easy to stream movies and TV shows with an app in the app store. Plus, there’s that whole branding issue. By putting their wares into Netflix or Apple’s iTunes Store, the networks and movie distributors lose the value of a brand.
It’s the same when Marriott or Hyatt or Sheraton or whatever major hotel chain dumped all their inventory at a discount into Orbitz or Expedia or Travelocity. The brand became diminished.
Can you say disintermediation?
Airlines had exactly the same problem. Apple wants to be your headquarters for streaming and buying every sort of media. It won’t happen. The media brands have learned a lesson. They figured out that their own apps make it easy to stream their wares and maintain control over the brand and the relationship with the customer.
What we’ll end up with will be dozens of Mac App Store and iPhone App Store (and, eventually, Android Market et al) apps that stream movies and television shows (and live events) instead of having a one stop shop that does it all.
Except for one thing. Apple’s shop, with AirPlay, may be the best way to view streaming movies and TV shows, and even buy them online through any one of a few dozen stores.
Two words: AppleTV.
OK, that’s really one word, but there’s enough syllables to qualify. Instead of becoming the Walmart store for streaming media, Apple becomes an important link in the media conduit– internet and cable television– that receives whatever we want, when we want it, where we want it. Apple still wins (just not the way everyone predicted, or that Apple wants).
With enough movies and television shows and live events streaming through to apps (channels) from the internet, now long before cable TV becomes passé?
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