From Apple’s AirPlay Website
What makes this more interesting is that the question was asked while Mr. Britt was busily explaining there is no easy way to get Internet content to your TV. As a reminder, AirPlay’s raison d’être is to make it easy to get content from the Internet, or at last iOS apps, to your TV.
“I’m not sure I know what AirPlay is,” Mr. Britt said, according to The New York Times. “Today we want to be on every screen. Today it’s a little bit clunky to get programming from the Internet onto the TV — not so hard to get it on your iPad. What’s hard is the plumbing, what wires do you connect, what device do you use. So the current Apple TV, the little thing, the hockey puck, really doesn’t do anything to help enable you to get Internet material on your TV.”
The Times also noted that Mr. Britt described himself as an enthusiastic Apple customer.
There are two aspects of this little vignette that we think are interesting. The first is: what does it say about the industry when the CEO of a major cable provider is unaware of something like AirPlay? This technology could conceivably allow networks, studios, and independent video producers to offer content directly through the Internet, potentially bypassing companies like Time Warner Cable (a.k.a. RoadRunner) in the process.
For instance, The Discovery Channel, ABC and PBS all offer AirPlay-compatible apps, and there are a host of other apps that also utilize the technology. These apps represents an existential threat to cable operators, and yet a major cable tech exec who is a fan of Apple’s product didn’t know about it, even though he’s been thinking about this very issue.
When discussing this in TMO Towers, John Martellaro asked: how can you keep from having your industry disrupted by a company like Apple if you aren’t even abreast of what Apple is openly doing? It’s a great question, and the kind of thing that every tech exec should be asking him/herself.
The second interesting thing about this incident is: what does it say about Apple’s marketing and outreach when smart, powerful execs in industries related to your own products don’t know about major technology efforts like AirPlay? How can Apple expect third parties to leverage its technologies—making Apple’s ecosystem more valuable in the first place—if those third parties don’t know anything about them, or have never even heard of them?
If Glenn A. Britt doesn’t know about AirPlay, how much do John Smith, Aunt Sue, or Mom and Dad know? The answer is “Ummm…not much.”
This could be as Apple wants it. It’s possible that the company simply isn’t ready to make a big push on AirPlay. This could be related to its supposed television set product, or its long-rumored efforts to get content owners on board for subscription TV through iTunes.
Or it could be one of those things that Apple puts out there and then spends little time or attention on once its released. For other examples, see Inkwell, Ping, iTools/.Mac/MobileMe, and even iWeb or iDVD. Even Apple’s AirPlay website is sparse on content, and it’s been a long time since we’ve heard much about AirPlay’s original purpose of streaming simply audio to AirPlay-enabled speakers