In a Q&A session after the launch of Apple’s new notebooks today, Steve Jobs called Sony’s Blu-ray a “bag of hurt” and stated that licensing the standard for Blu-ray hardware and software is currently too complex. Jobs then remarked that Apple is waiting for Blu-ray to “take off in the marketplace.”
However, the company was quick to point out that it supports HD video -- as long as it's not on a disc. Speaking after Jobs, Phil Schiller, Apple's vice president of marketing, noted iTunes already has the "best" HD movie and TV options. Apple has spent years developing products that incorporate streaming media, such as Apple TV and iTunes libraries.
Schiller’s comment highlights how Apple defines the “best” in entertainment. It's not the technical particulars relating to screen resolution and sound, but rather the immediate ease and accessibility of the content. Apple TV’s HD quality is certainly not equal to Blu-ray, but Apple clearly would rather its customers have access to cheap and accessible HD content of slightly lower quality, rather than the physical media model, which delivers higher-quality pictures but comes with several disadvantages -- namely, higher cost and limited selection.
Posters on professional video forums have complained in the past about Apple's lack of support for the industry standard in HD physical media, but posters on general entertainment tech forums today seemed indifferent to the lack of Blu-ray drives on the new Macs. Blu-ray hardware and software support have been conspicuously absent from Apple’s MacBook Pro and MacPro lines as well as OS X and Final Cut Pro, even though Apple originally “supported” the format three years ago.
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Comments
Apple's trying to manipulate its video sales through iTunes and disregarding a sector of the market that produces its own hd video and must buy adobe encore and use bluray displays from other sources. The problem for Apple is they are also disregarding a sector of their customer base that wants the best quality sound and video and no Apple product, service or software now supports either. Unless they support a way to burn and display better quality, they will lose that sector of their customer base.
Thank you, Apple, for helping to battle the Hollywood machine and refusing to play their lock-in game. Consumers don't know what they want until a new product or service emerges they fill a need they never knew that had. Physical media is all they have ever known, but they will be ready to abandon obsolete formats and Hollywood-imposed restrictions.
Cant they just make it an overpriced upgrade. Since they hardly offer much customization that one item would make since.
Since Jobs' return to Apple, he has been betting against physical media in favor of the convenient and low cost Apple model. A comparison between the share price and earnings performance of Sony and Apple in the same period makes this look like a good bet. Consumers just aren't that sensitive to the minor quality improvements offered by new media such as Blu-Ray, but music and movies at the click of a button, starting at $.99 a pop, thats attractive. I'm still betting on Apple.
I think apple is always trying to innovate new things........
Every tech company is in a pursuit to do that, Dj.
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