Bill Gates: “Internet TV Will Revolutionize Television In 5 Years”
I didn’t think I would say this of Bill Gates but - “PREACH ON!”
Bill claimed that, “Internet TV Will Revolutionize Television In 5 Years,” at the World Economic Forum and I must say I like what he’s talking about. He went on to suggest that in five years we would look back and laugh at what we’ve had.
TV and media on the internet has been possible for many years but the experience was lacking the quality that we were accustomed to in our living rooms. You can download an entire movie off the net but watching it on your PC… at your desk… in an office chair… it just isn’t the same.
Alternately you could build a powerful media center PC to playback all of your downloads but the investment for a good one was nothing to sneeze at and you probably all ready have a perfectly good TV, DVD player, and cable box in your living room.
So why now? And how?
For that answer we need to shift our focus from Microsoft back to Apple. At this years Mac World Steve Jobs introduced their solution to bridge the gap between the internet and your living room. It’s called Apple TV.
The name has the ring of a premium television subscription channel but it is - in fact - a small network box that connects to your computer and outputs to your television. But the notion of it being a channel isn’t far off. I believe it is the only channel you would ever care for. Programing that is 100% to your liking and on at all the right times for you.
Apple TV represents and evolution in the on demand service arena. An article from the NYT explained that, “consumers now demand more from their televisions, largely thanks to TiVo, which has forced the cable companies to ask suppliers for more innovative set-top boxes.
To be fair Apple wasn’t the first with this device. The Slingbox has been around a lot longer. But given Apple’s success with the iPod alone it’s reasonable to expect that this will be a big deal to. They didn’t invent the portable media player - they made it better and this is what I anticpate will happen with television content delivered via the internet.
Bill says this will take 5 years for this paradigm to shift. I say to both he and Steve, HURRY UP! 
Doug Nouwen
podCALGARY.org