Robert Cringley knows Apple and Steve Jobs better than perhaps anyone. He was Apple employee #12 and has been following the company as a pundit for over 20 years. Today Bob speculates that Apple will use the hard drive in the forthcoming Apple TV to create an Google Adwords-supported IPTV network that leverages grid computing.
Although Apple has a very big enterprise business, it's bread and butter consists of consumer products like the iPod. Most always these products do less of something, not more. So I don't see Apple turning what is a fairly simple product with a singular purpose into a BitTorrent-powered device that takes the load of its servers.
However, Cringley raises a heckuva an idea that somebody, most likely not Apple, will pursue. A tandem of services are coming together that will leverage the grid to open TV up as a content distribution channel for the masses. However, this won't come from Apple at first. The innovation will start with enthusiasts, arising from the edge of the network not the center. Just as it did with PCs and the Internet.
Already all the technology is in place for you to cut your cable and go IP if you wanted to (although you will miss it because of content). Right now it is very kludgy and really only for geeks. Take a small box like a Mac Mini and attach it to your TV - like Dave did. Then throw in a very fast connection, an app like Democracy and a file sharing system that runs off BitTorrent and you have an IPTV that bypasses your cable company.
Right now this is not for the technophobes. But software will make it work nicely. There will be numerous boxes that bring IPTV to your screen. Some will be from the big players, but there will always be alternatives in the form of commodity hardware powered by open source software. Those will be there first. In fact, they're here right now. Watch this video.
Still, it's content that's going to make this sing. Expect the TV networks to wake up soon and realize that their future growth won't come from cable and satellite companies but by aligning with every IPTV service under the sun. Some of these just might be developed by geeks like us. Others will come from the big tech companies. What Cringley does get right is that they will be partially monetized by video Adsense. The race is on.
