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Viodi View Newsletter - October 4th, 2006
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Apple or Google's Trojan Horse?
By Ken Pyle
ken.pyle at viodi.com
Could the iTV box that Apple is developing be a form Larry Ellison’s long sought network computer? The speculation is that video would be delivered to this device for redistribution throughout the home. This device becomes a home server that has the potential to deliver applications beyond entertainment. Why couldn’t it also deliver the standard productivity applications, such as word processing, spreadsheets, family calendars, etc. These would be delivered to screens throughout the household (a recent study suggested that flat panel screens are being deployed in more rooms in the house than ever).
Coupled with bandwidth, a WiFi enabled device, such as a handheld PDA or an LCD screen in the kitchen, could conceivably get access to and run applications from a central server. With raid storage and one point of security, the total cost of ownership for a given household could be much lower than one that has multiple computers. This could provide another incentive for people to switch to an Apple platform, as they would only have to buy software for and secure one computer. For Apple, it could provide another way to move people away from Windows platform onto one that is more amiable to Apple’s content distribution efforts.
This notion of a distributed network computer is not too far fetched. There is at least one company (nComputing) that offers this capability for Windows machines. They claim that as long as only one person uses a particular application at a time, they are within the End User License Agreements of the software.
The windows alternative would be a low-cost web server running open source software, such as Linux and Open Office. This server could be fairly low cost, as it would not necessarily need a graphic card (these would be contained the screens or in external boxes that would have LAN/wireless connectivity & graphic cards). It would have high speed wired and wireless network connectivity. The open source software applications that are web-based already exist (e.g., Google Write, Google Spreadsheets and others).
In fact, Google could be another possible driver of this sort of initiative. They already have server farms that perform this function. Building or working with established PC brands, such as HP or Dell, to develop “Google Inside” whole house computers, Google could bring their existing online applications into the home in a much larger way than they currently do. These home-based residential gateways could serve as a storage and playback platform for delivery of their partner’s (e.g. CBS) video directly to the consumer; bypassing the existing distribution infrastructure (e.g., the cable companies).
They might even subsidize these boxes, just to get them in the home. With peer to peer technology, it is conceivable that they could reserve storage space for their own purposes and create a virtual server farm, using electricity from their customers and creating a very scalable solution that would eliminate the need for new, massive server farms.
The scenario painted above is something independent telcos could do as well. The biggest challenge for independent telcos would be getting the PC manufacturers to get on board for the relatively small numbers of customers they would bring to the table.
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The Video Business Case for Independent Telcos – The Report
Viodi’s report, Video Business Case provides results to a survey of independent telcos and their business case for video. Most of the telcos that responded to the survey have figured out a way to deploy video services. This survey provides insight from the independent telcos as well as several of their Engineering firms.