Not Just Quarterlife and shows like it but in the way in which this "new media" will be consumed in the very near future is on topic in a NPR piece that mentions the AppleTV device.

Last week a NPR radio show spotlighted the expansion of new media headed to the Internet rather than just the TV, and in some cases forgoing the TV altogether. The show was noteworthy for Apple watchers because the Cupertino company's AppleTV device was brought up in the discussion several times.

In fact the discussion, led by NPR On Point show host Tom Ashbrook, seemed to strongly suggest that Apple's strategy for leading all media to the big screen TV in the living room -- via the AppleTV device -- was a solid play.

Prominent VC Says AppleTV Right on Target

Show guest Mark Kvamme, a partner at Sequoia Capital, a leading VC firm in Silicon Valley, strongly suggested that regardless of the growing ways in which people will both find and consume new media, all these new media avenues will not change some underlying fundamentals about how people see media and how the big screen TV is still the dominant landing point for consumption.

Kvamme mentioned that the average adult spends four hours on TV viewing per day. If you really want to have a big commercial impact you need to make it on the big screen.

Kvamme remarked on the show: "I had my son install an AppleTV, which kind of links YouTube videos, my music, my family photos onto my big screen in my living room -- and I would have said before that this is going to be a different environment -- but I gotta tell you that when it is all integrated together it is an amazing experience. So I think it's going to be really hard for folks to say this is an online situation or computer situation, this is on my television, this is on my radio -- whatever it happens to be."

"What is really happening is that all these media are blending together."

iFlop or iSuccess?

Whether or not all these new media are blending together isn't the central question at Apple. Ever since the first iMacs Jobs has been talking about the computer as the "digital hub", as end users produce, organize, play and share their digital movies, photos and music. Now growing on top of this is an array of other media, including YouTube videos and the music videos, television shows and movies downloaded from places like iTunes and elsewhere on the Net.

The question for Apple right now is whether or not the AppleTV is going to be a successful device in merging all these media together and bringing it to the big screen TV. Or is the AppleTV really an iFlop as a recent Forbes article suggested?

Kvamme's "amazing experience" comments and Forbes' article couldn't be in more contrast in regards to the AppleTV.

While the Forbes article is clearly stirring the water more than it needs to, citing NBC's walkout on iTunes for instance, it does raise several long held complaints about the AppleTV device. Chief among these is the lack of the ability to record TV shows on the AppleTV's hard drive. But an even bigger reason why AppleTV has failed to really take off is perhaps not discussed enough: the inability to rent movies via Internet download.

The latest TiVo boxes and devices by rivals now enable movie fans to sit back and download movies over the Internet without leaving the couch. Apple clearly needs to catchup in areas that are essential to the success of media merging devices.

New Web Media

Quarterlife may be the start of the next big thing: hit television-style shows produced by big names in Hollywood but foregoing the traditional television channels of distribution.

If so, Apple has more opportunities for success with the AppleTV than the Forbes article is mentioning.

The On Point episode noted that if you have a broadband connection, you will spend 34% of your leisure time watching TV and 32% of your time online. This is being reflected in continuing shifts of advertising dollars towards the Internet and away from other media avenues.

Forbes' critique of Apple's device might be too skewed towards traditional views of media consumption. While one can talk on and on about the three letter studios and the big six movie production houses and their influence, the Millennials (or The Internet Generation) don't even consume media with the same habits as Baby Boomers and even Generation X.

In fact, Millennials are more apt to be instant messaging and Facebooking while watching TV in the background if watching it at all. The trending going on now is about integrating the broadcast with the Net experience. And there are other ways in which the Net experience is being integrated into the traditional broadcast, especially with regards to sports. A significant challenge and opportunity going forward will be in this critical area of Net to broadcast integration.

And whenever a tech industry is challenged when it comes to the integration of diverse things and the way in which they are found and consumed, it would be ill-advised to count Apple out of the game so quickly as Forbes seems to have done by calling the AppleTV an iFlop.

If even half of the trending discussed in the On Point episode comes to light, the real flop in this picture isn't going to be Apple's AppleTV and iTunes, but rather the decades-old traditions of media consumption.

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Article References

NPR On Point: "TV Online" - September 19, 2007. (Listen here and also available on iTunes.)

Forbes: The iFlop

paidContent.org - How Did Apple Get iTV So Wrong?

Architosh Forums: Will you get an AppleTV? (Poll)

Quarterlife.com