Possible Relationship Between The Apple Tablet And The Apple TV

December 22nd, 2009

Apple’s efforts to get the cable companies to go along with a subscription plan is a classic chicken and egg problem; content holders are reluctant to free up their content unless there are a ton of viewers, while viewers are reluctant to buy a device unless there’s a ton of content. Apple’s been trying hard to get video viewers on the iPod, iPhone, and Apple TV, but none of those products — in particular the Apple TV — have really taken off when it comes to video content.

The Apple TV is an odd product. I love its ease of use, ability to stream content from iTunes on a Mac, and rent movies, but it’s missing Hulu and Netflix Watch Instantly content. I’ve gotten a lot of use out of it, but it’s not a “must have” product — I’m hesitant to recommend it to others.

So I speculate there’s a link between the as-yet-unannounced (but everyone’s behaving as if it’s coming in 2010) Apple Tablet and the Apple TV. It’s a bit suspicious how the Apple TV hardware hasn’t been updated in quite some time, after all other Apple products were refreshed in late 2009. The reason might be this future Apple Tablet.

Apple could fold Apple TV functionality into the Apple Tablet. Imagine a tablet with HDMI out, or better yet, a small dongle that attaches to a TV and receives content stored on the device. While watching stuff on a TV, Apple Tablet turns into a gigantic touch screen remote control. And obviously, when you’re on the go you can watch all your videos on the Apple Tablet, without a TV, since it’s all stored on the device.

Then add some tweaks to the pay model — a monthly subscription fee for particular channels sounds awesome. I just hope the price has an awareness of the Netflix and Hulu alternatives.

But watching television won’t be enough to make an Apple Tablet a must have, so Apple will pile on the functionality to make it the ultimate multimedia device. Music is obvious. eBooks are a no-brainer. Apple has the iTunes Store as a delivery mechanism, they’d be in color, plus a touch interface: goodbye Kindle. I’d expect a video camera too, since that’s already in the iPhone — imagine watching videos you’ve just recorded on a big 10 inch screen — and with the Apple TV link, on your big television: goodbye Flip Video. Then add the ability to run iPhone apps, surf the web and email: boom, a killer product.

Essentially, Apple will try to crack the chicken and egg problem by making one half of the equation so compelling and irresistible to consumers that the content providers will literally have no choice but to climb aboard. My fingers are crossed they’ll pull it off — sticking it to the cable companies is a very appealing concept.