• Ad Age, Wednesday, September 20, 2006 11:15 AM

Could Apple Computer--which effectively reformed the music industry with the iPod--change the way we consume TV content? With its iTV device, Apple plans to bring cable TV and viral video clips to your living-room TV. If it works, "it will be because Mr. Jobs and others are realizing that content, not hardware, is still king." Is that it? Or does the sexy design and sleek user interface of Apple's products come into play? What about the clever way it's marketed? Then there's the consumer-choice factor: It's not that the content is great, it's the lack of barriers to it. YouTube and the cable box offer essentially the same experience, but on different mediums. But do we need both experiences on the same screen? How many people now watch television while surfing the Web at the same time? Won't the combined experience be somewhat limiting for those who can't sit still and concentrate on a single television program? The numbers don't appear to back up Apple's iTV idea, either. About 40 percent of Americans are interested in some kind of connectivity, says an August study from Parks Associates, a consumer-technology research firm. Right now, about 4 million homes have connected multiple-entertainment devices, but the firm does expect that number to reach 30 million, or 36 percent of broadband-connected homes by 2010.

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