Apple Mac HQ

Apple’s recent purchase of Lala has many intriguing ramifications for Apple users.

Lala is a music site that lets users stream music.  Lala scans your hard drive to see which music you already own.  If songs match what is in their library, or you upload your tracks, you can listen to that music an unlimited amount through their web site.  If you don’t own the tracks, you can listen to them once.  After that you can buy a web version that can be streamed forever or “upgraded” to a downloadable version.  The streaming component flies in the face of Apple’s “download-and-own-forever” model.  Apple sees that music consumption may evolve and they are preparing for this change.  It is unknown whether Apple will keep Lala’s current model or alter it to a “all-you-can-eat” subscription.

There is no way the Lala iPhone app sees the light of day, presuming that Lala isn’t kept as a separate service that is away from Apple’s ecosystem.  Streaming content could be provided through the music app on the iPhone/iPod touch (and hopefully Apple’s potential tablet) with optional caching for offline playback.  It would be nice to have downloadable music for iPods lacking WI-FI, with music files that time-expire.  Syncing through iTunes could then verify service membership (i.e. once a month).

There have been endless debates on the value proposition of MobileMe, especially in light of alternative free services that can be combined to be similar to what MobileMe offers.  Adding a streaming music service to MobileMe would increase its value significantly.  I would assume that being a subscriber to Apple’s music service would not require being a MobileMe member.

It would be great to have my music stored in the cloud from anywhere with a Internet connection.  Any Lala web site functionality will probably be rebranded as a Apple product and thus become iTunes in a browser.

Apple TV has not sold well.  Coupling this music service with the proposed video subscription deal that could be occurring soon and I would be far more interested in getting an Apple TV.  Content is king, and the variety and amount of music and video available will be key to increasing Apple TV’s popularity.

Many music services I have tried have left me wanting more.  Hopefully Apple’s will have enough content to please me.

My wife is not going to be happy. Just last week I showed her how to use Boxee on our Apple TV to watch her favorite TV shows via Hulu. Tonight, I had to break the bad news to her. Boxee is being forced to remove Hulu from their application. This situation upsets me greatly.

Hulu has a post on their blog about the situation. As you can see from the picture above, Hulu and Boxee are no longer friends. Ok, so I made that part up. The crude pictures help me cope OK.

Sometimes, OK often, I just don’t understand the media companies. You don’t want people to pirate video/music so you give us a legal way to obtain your content. Just as adoption rate of this new method starts to take hold, all the sudden that method is not good anymore. The viewing experience with Hulu and Boxee was working just fine! I didn’t mind watching the ads. Perhaps BitTorrent traffic will tick up because of this.

Hulu says their content providers “requested that we turn off access to our content via the Boxee product”. So basically all is fine and dandy as long as you can’t watch Hulu on a TV? I can just hook my Mac to my TV video input and watch Hulu on my TV. Why is it any different if I’m using an application to do the exact same thing?

As to my wife and Hulu? We’ll they have broken up too. She’s not going to watch her TV shows on her laptop via Hulu.com. There goes at least one set of eyeballs!

Are you upset about the Boxee and Hulu situation? Write Jason Kilar, the CEO of Hulu, at Jason@hulu.com. He’ll be seeing my email soon.

Of all the Apple products I own, perhaps my favorite is the Apple TV. The Apple TV along with iTunes, VisualHub, and Handbrake make for a fantastic media experience. Despite nearly every Apple TV owner absolutely loving their device, the product remains a “hobby” to Apple. Though I don’t believe sales figures for the Apple TV are publicly available, a “hobby” isn’t exactly a glowing indicator of sales.

I purchased my Apple TV after the Macworld 2008 price drop and news about the 2.0 software. Originally the unit was too expensive and lacked features. The $229 price (40GB version) was much more attractive as was the 2.0 software which brought movie rentals and the ability to act as a stand alone device (no PC or Mac required). I dropped my $199 bucks down on a refurbished Apple TV and have used it nearly every day since. I really enjoy watching TV shows, video podcasts, movies, and pictures on my Apple TV. My wife absolutely loves it too!

While I gush about how much I like the Apple TV, I seem to be in the minority of Apple fans, as many do not own one. You rarely see ads for the device anywhere and I think a lot of people aren’t really sure what the Apple TV actually does. And really, how much can a “hobby” add to Apple’s already large chest of cash?

I have a solution to raise the demand for Apple TV. In fact, Apple has already implemented this solution with two of the other main product lines, the iPod and iPhone. Apple needs a Made For Apple TV program and a SDK and App Store for the Apple TV.

SDK: Imagine if NBC released a Hulu application for Apple TV. What about Google Earth for Apple TV? NetNewsWire, NYTimes, WeatherBug, Wikipanion, and Last.fm for Apple TV? The ability to set Apple TV to play music/video while you are on vacation would be a nice security feature. The list could go on for possible applications for Apple TV.

Made For Apple TV Program: Imagine the Apple TV as the central nervous system for a wireless home music/video automation system. The ability to interface with the unit via third party controls, wall units, wireless keyboards, etc.

Not only would Apple move more Apple TV units, they would also receive additional revenue with App Store sales and third party accessories (like they do with many iPod accessories). These moves would open up the device to third party developers and create an iPod like ecosystem. This would be a win-win for Apple and their partners/software developers.

Do you own a Apple TV and love it? If not, would you want one if third party accessories and software were available for it? Sound off below with your comments about my idea or your thoughts on the Apple TV.

If you don’t want to listen to the Quicktime stream or read a live blog, here are the most interesting numbers from Apple’s 2008 Q3 results which were released today. My comments are in parentheses.

B = Billion
M = Million
YAQ = Year ago quarter
FY = Fiscal Year

Revenue/Financials
-Best June quarter for revenue and earnings in Apple history
-Revenue of 7.46B; 38% increase over YAQ
-Net Income 1.07B; 31% increase over YAQ
-EPS of $1.19
-Gross margin was 34.8%; down from 36.9% in YAQ
-International sales accounted for 42% of revenue
-Europe revenue growth was 43% over YAQ
-Operating Expenses were 1.21B
-Capital expenditures were 304M in quarter
-1.33B in cash generated in quarter
-5.4B in cash generated in first 3 quarters of fiscal 2008
-20.8B in cash on hand
-Q4 estimates of 7.8B in revenue

Mac
-Shipped 2.5M Macs; a new quarterly record
-Mac unit sales up 41% over YAQ
-49% increase in Mac desktop sales over YAQ
-37% increase in Mac portable sales over YAQ
-25% growth in Mac US education sales over YAQ
-Mac channel inventory is currently below average, currently at 3-4 weeks
-Mac products and services accounted for 61% of total quarterly revenue

iPhone
-Sold 717,000 iPhones (iPhone 3G was not released in this quarter)
-Sold 1M iPhone 3Gs in 3 days (sales not recognized in this quarter)
-Over 25M iPhone apps downloaded to date (sales not recognized in this quarter)
-Q4 iPhone sales are expected to be the highest for any quarter yet (well duh; a distribution in over 20 countries will do that)
-”About” 20 additional countries will have an August 22nd iPhone 3G launch; bringing the total to over 40
-iPhone will be in 70 countries by the end of the year
-Apple still expects to sell 10M iPhones in calendar year 2008
-Revenue of 419M was recognized from iPhone sales, iPhone accessories, and payments from phone carriers. This does not include iPhone sales between March 6th and July 10th (due to accounting methods in relation to the announcement and release of iPhone 2.0 software).

iPod/iTunes
-Sold 11M iPods; 12% increase over YAQ
-7% iPod revenue growth over YAQ
-Over 70% market share in MP3 players in the US; based on latest public data
-Over 5B songs sold since iTunes released

Apple Stores
-58% growth in Apple Store retail sales over YAQ
-About 32M visitors to Apple Stores; up 10M over YAQ
-Apple Stores reported 1.44B in revenue
-Average revenue per store was 6.8M; up 33% over YAQ
-Over 50% of in store Mac sales were to new Mac customers
-8 new Apple Stores opened in quarter; including first in Australia
-Q3 ended with 216 Apple Stores
-Apple Stores coming to Switzerland and Germany in 2008
-Expect to close FY 2008 with 242 Apple Stores

Other
-Gross margin will decline for Q4 in part from a “future product transition” (ideas anyone?)
-Added 170 Best Buy mini stores; bringing the total to 570
-Added over 1600 storefronts to Mac distribution in the last year
-In a question about the health of Steve Job’s: “Steve loves Apple, he serves as the CEO at the pleasure of Apple’s board and has no plans to leave Apple. Steve’s health is a private matter.”
-Apple continues to invest in the Apple TV; yet it remains a “hobby”
-Analysts seemed overly concerned about the 30% gross margin Apple predicted for FY 2009

As of this post, the stock is down more than $16 in after hours trading. Record sales, incredible growth, stock tumbles. I guess you can’t always please The Street!

Without a doubt, the Remote application from Apple is one of the coolest programs I’ve seen in a while. Remote allows you to control iTunes and Apple TV from your iPhone or iPod touch. All you need is the Remote application, an iPhone or iPod touch (with the new 2.0 software of course), an iTunes library or Apple TV, and a wi-fi connection.

After downloading the Remote application (iTunes link), launch it. Click the Add Library button and follow the on screen prompts. This involves the same access code process that is involved with attaching a iTunes library to the Apple TV. After you have correctly entered the 4 number code into your iTunes or Apple TV, you should see the contents of your iTunes or Apple TV in front of you.

Like using the iPod feature on your iPhone or iPod touch, clicking the links at the bottom will change the view of your library. Tap though to the appropriate file and it will start playing in either iTunes or your Apple TV, depending on which you are connected to. If you want control another library, just go back to settings and add another. It’s a simple tap of the screen to choose which library you want to control!

When I first installed the application I actually laughed with amazement. The ability to control the media in my life with my phone is simply amazing. If you’re currently playing something in iTunes and open Remote, it will automatically bring up the currently playing track on screen. When you are controlling a video, it will show one frame of the video on your screen instead of the album art like it does with a song.

In conclusion, this needs to the the first application you load from the App Store on your iPhone or iPod touch. I’m simply amazed it’s free!

I was recently on a business trip and one of my coworkers decided to buy an iPod Classic while we were at the Birmingham Apple Store. The next day he was looking to put some content on his iPod. In addition to a few songs on his laptop, he also had some videos he converted to avi files some time ago. He didn’t know how to get those videos on his iPod though. That’s when I thought of iSquint.

iSquint is a simple tool for converting videos to an iPod compatible format. As the screenshot below shows, it’s very easy to start converting video. Just drag a file into the application window, choose your optimization format and quality, and click start. If you selected the “Add to iTunes” checkbox, your video will be added to iTunes when it’s done converting. Sync your iPod and it will be transferred to it. It really is that simple. If you’re looking to put video on your iPod, iSquint is a great tool.

iSquint is available free of charge from Techspansion. iSquint is the little brother of VisualHub, the fantastic video conversion tool that I frequently use to add content to my Apple TV.

If you have the need to convert video formats or own an Apple TV then I’ll assume you have heard of VisualHub. For the uninitiated, it’s basically the swiss army knife of video conversion for the Mac. VisualHub features fast conversions from nearly every video format to a plethora of formats in a quick three step process (shot of the UI below). I just finished converting some video for my Apple TV and it worked flawlessly and quickly.

I’ve been pondering buying VisualHub for a week or so and finally went to pull the trigger last night when I noticed that in addition to buying VisualHub for the low cost of $23.32 USD, there was an option to get it for free. So what’s the catch you’re saying? Well basically you buy something else and get VisualHub for free through a service called TrialPay.

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