SteveJ-restore-test

Will Apple, in 2013, release its next Game Changer for Television following on from the iPod, iPhone, and iPad? If they do, will that break the Internet as we know it when 50-250MM people trying to stream a World Cup final? Nobody can supply Terrabit server links, let alone afford them. To reinvent watching TV, Apple has to reinvent its distribution over the Internet. The surprising thing is we were first on the cusp of wide-scale "Video-on-Demand" in 1993. Can, twenty years later, we get there this time? Walter Isaacson in his HBR piece, " The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs " says: In looking for industries or categories ripe for disruption, Jobs always asked who was making products more complicated than they should be. In 2001 portable music players ... , leading to the iPod and the iTunes Store. Mobile phones were next. ... At the end of his career he was setting his sights on the television industry, which had made it almost impossible for people to click...

My friend Mark expanded on my idea of "HD DV being irrelevant" - like phone SIM's, video stores can sell/rent videos on flash cards (like SD) sealed in a credit-card carrier. The issues are more commercial than technical. 8Gb USB flash memory might hit the A$50 price point this year - and A$30 next year. There is a 'base price' for flash memory - around $10-$15. This inverts the current cost structure of expensive reader/writer and cheap media. Which is perfect for rental/leasing of media - a refundable 'media deposit' works. An added bonus for content owners is a significant "price barrier" for consumers wanting to make a copy. If a 'stack' of 100 SD cards costs $1500 (vs $100 for DVDs), very few people will throw these around 'like candy'. Mark's comments: Y'know, the more I think of it, the more the SD-embedded-in-a-credit-card has a lot of appeal when the availability and price point for 8Gb SDs is right. It makes...