TV and Mark Cuban
This morning I read an interesting article about the future of TV, Web 2.0, and PCs on Mark Cuban's Blog. I have kinda been following him lately hoping that he would write about how he's going to buy the Cubs and get them to the World Series as soon as possible, but he hasn't. Anyway, I read the article and was compelled to comment, partly because I had an opinion and partly because no one else had yet.
His basic theory is that the web and internet video are both fairly mature and have nowhere to go. Thus, new products like the Apple TV are pushing the wrong direction by taking video from your computer to your TV, rather than connecting your TV to the internet. Even Mr. Cuban would agree that he has a vested interest in HDTV, but I'm sure he wouldn't have this interest if he didn't think he was right.
Cuban says he expects everyone to upgrade their TVs as regularly as they upgraded their computers in the past decade, because computers haven't been making advances and TVs have. I'll give him that. If I need a computer to check the my email and browse the internet, like probably 75% of people in the world, the computer I have will work for quite a while (minus Microsoft and Apple creating new OSs with features I don't need and requiring me to upgrade to them, but that's another story).
However, where I disagree is the idea that the average Joe Schmo is going to be interested in interactive TV. I really don't believe that regular people are going to be interested in applications and development platforms on their televisions. TV is passive. People like to veg out in front of it, not deal with it or play against it. That's what video games are for. I wrote a paper in college about this actually, I'll have to see if I can find it. (Edit: found it)
Cuban closes by saying, "If the question is "Whats Next ", the answer begins with "Watch TV"," but I don't think 'watch' is the word he meant.
Anyway, he replied to my comment via email, so I am the proud owner of an email from a billionaire. Needless to say, I didn't convince him, but I didn't really expect to. Anyway, I know no one cares, so that's it for that one.
2 comments:
Mark Cuban makes like $74,000 per hour, so if it took him 5 mins to read your comment write back, that eamil is worth $6,166.67. If he gets out bid on the Cubs by $6,166.67 or less I will be pisssed!
So, what the heck did he have to say about your comments? Did he call you a crackpot, and that's why you didn't write down what he said?
I'll have to read his initial ideas... sounds interesting. It's funny, TiVo has been trying to make their service more and more interactive with little games, the ability to buy movie tickets, etc. But, I don't really use it to do more than watch TV... and I don't think I'm alone. Like I said, I'll have to read Cuban's original ideas before I agree or disagree with anyone, but it is an interesting theory.
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