Quote to Note: Time Warner on Content vs Interface
October 10, 2010
I spotted a quote to note in the Hollywood Report’s story “time Warner CEO Calls Google an Ally.” That is a high potential phrase “Google an ally”. What caught my attention is that statement in the write up:
Said Bewkes [Time Warner big dog]: “When all of the content on the big screen works like the content on the little screen, what will happen? The programming will trump the interface.”
Yesterday we dusted off our old Apple TV and fired up two iPads, an iPhone, and two desktop Macs. We wanted to see what happened when we tried to use the iPads and the iPhone to control the Apple TV. Now I have some reasonably alert goslings helping me with this type of one in a million test, but we were indeed puzzled. The big iMac lit up and showed what looked like an iTunes interface and then closed the app. The little iMac took over. The Apple TV and the iMac auto discovered the iPhone, but the two iPads required some fiddling to get the codes into the Apple TV.
No big deal, but we concluded:
- If the auto-magic stuff doesn’t work, most folks are going to be baffled
- The interfaces across the Apple computers, the iPad and the Apple TV were different enough to give us some serious hunt and browse work.
- The potential for major home entertainment chaos is pretty high.
In short, the quote to note makes clear that a content company (albeit one in a state of change) sees the world as hungry for content. The hapless user may indeed want to watch content but if the interface sucks, no joy.
Like any complex system, the components have to work seamlessly. At this time, not even Apple has the rough edges polished. Does this tell us anything about the rush of new “consumer” add ons for one’s TV entering the market? I still can’t use my remotes without a magnifying glass and the Windows Office ribbon continues to baffle me. I must be one in a million goose.
Stephen E Arnold, October 10, 2010
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