HD For Indies

AppleInsider | Jobs and Iger comment on Disney's acquisition of Pixar

Steady readers will have seen me go on ad nauseum about Apple's possible consumer electronics forays that I expect this year (and to kick off on April 1st, Apple's 30th birthday). To sum up, I expect an Intel Viiv platform based Mac Mini that will have standard living room plugs - as in video and stereo hookups, in addition to the computer display and headphone jack hookups. I expect at some later point to see an Airport Express A/V type of gadget, a small wireless device with similar connections that can stream MPEG-2 and H.264 content wirelessly from a computer elsewhere in the residence to the living room/TV, the video equivalent of the audio iPod (minus the portability, of course). But it would solve the "How do I get it from computer to living room?" quandary.

Some quotes that either support those ideas, or at least trigger some interesting thoughts (these pulled from the above linked article):


Bob Iger was the first person Steve Jobs called when Apple decided it was going to market with a video-capable iPod. Jobs would not comment on any new products or potential partnerships with Disney, but said: "It's gonna be a pretty exciting next five years."

Mike's read: lining up comment for future products. As I felt the Intel deal was more about (or at least in part) about the consumer electronics play and a way for Apple to dramatically increase it's market share, I think the Disney move will have HUGE payoffs in terms of getting ALL of Disney's content on board with online digital distribution over Apple branded products. Disney has their own consumer electronics division run by an old co-worker of mine (Hey Chris!), and whether they'd want in on the action to is a very interesting question to see how it would play out.

Apple has spent years trying to build a better computer and get the world to buy into it, and while it has arguably built a better computer, the world doesn't care much (reflected in terms of market share) and has continued to buy Wintel systems. It is my guess that Apple realizes, after the success of the iPod, that the path to LARGE growth is to get into CE (consumer electronics) markets and work that angle rather than toil away on the computer side with a poor return on their investment of time and resources.

"I fully hope that the relationships between the companies will continue because its been so good," Iger said of Disney's recent collaboration with Apple and its iTunes distribution service.

Same song, second verse.

"I think Steve will be a big voice in many respects, and I think that's a good thing," Iger said of Jobs' new roll at Disney.

If true, that lends credence to Steve being able to pull Disney content to Apple consumer electronic devices.

Asked whether it can capitalize on emerging distribution opportunities -- such as Apple's iTunes and iPod -- Disney executives were hesitant to comment, saying the goal, above all else, is to make great animation films. "The rest takes care of itself," the company said. However, Disney conceded that it is open to whatever technology or means will get its products to people "on a well-timed, well-priced basis."

OK, now keep that in your head and read this:

"You may watch your favorite live action film three, four, or five times in your life," said Jobs. "But for a great animation film, your kids may watch it a dozen or a hundred times." He believes the opportunity to view these movies on other devices will eventually play an important roll and expects strong demand from family members to watch certain films from many places on many devices.

OK, BINGO. I can totally vouch for this - my neice and nephew have seen Toy Story dozens of times. My sister dropped big cash for an in car DVD player for the hours she spends with the kids in the car all of the time. If there were a little player for them? And the files it played worked in the living room too? BIG market. Kids movies are almost a different viewing/playback/monetary thing than grownups' (I'm avoiding the connotations of "adult" here) movies, and suddenly makes a lot of sense for an Apple CE device. Excuse me, SERIES of devices.

And on another note...

Pixney or Dixar?

It'll be interesting to see whether this effort turns into a Pixney (happy sounding name, happy results, good melding of cultures and talents, beautiful animation and storycrafting from Pixar, good marketing and distribution from Disney) or a Dixar (ugly name, mangled sequels, Toy Story characters in Disney, and bad merchandising, more lame "movies as Broadway musicals," spinning of Walt in grave).

I had fun thinking about the name stuff - Pixney I read somewhere else, but Dixar I came up with. If you were going to have good and bad characters in a movie, it's pretty obvious which is which.