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VIRTUALISATION iTunes: Apple's Trojan Horse to capture home audio-visual market
VIRTUALISATION iTunes: Apple's Trojan Horse to capture home audio-visual market | iTunes: Apple's Trojan Horse to capture home audio-visual market |
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| by Stuart Corner | |
| Saturday, 29 July 2006 | |
  
ABI Research director, Vamsi Sistla, said: "The battle for portable devices has already been won by iPod (unless Microsoft's strategy for its Zune platform succeeds) but in the home and mobile markets, the prize is still up for grabs. iTunes could be a 'Trojan Horse' through which Apple can enter the home market sooner than the competition." According to ABI, the key to this opportunity is consumers' growing interest in digital media connectivity in the home. "I think we will soon see more line-powered consumer audio devices - high-end audio devices with AV receivers, and multi-room audio systems - adding support for iTunes to their current support for iPod," Sistla said. Over a billion files have been downloaded from iTunes to date and according to ABI, this content is often organised by iTunes client software into playlists and catalogues. "Leveraging all that content, which users have already paid for and want to hear on a good home audio system or watch on a digital-ready TV, creates a huge opening for consumer electronics vendor," the research firm argues. The core of such a system could be a standard PC or a dedicated 'media centre' PC, but ABI notes that Apple already offesr such a system through the combination of its Intel-based Mac Mini and its Front Row networking software. Front Row works with Apple's remote control device to enable music, image and video content stored on any Mac in the customer's home to be viewed on any other Mac in the home if the two are networked. Sistla argues: "The field is wide open for PC manufacturers and other vendors of home CE systems to capitalise on what should be a large and dynamic market." |
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