At Apple's first ever QuickTime Live conference for content developers, Apple demonstrated new technologies such as automated ad insertion that will boost QuickTime's e-commerce capabilities. More significantly, the moves reflect Apple's desire to promote QuickTime from its status as a marketing expense to a new revenue generator.
QuickTime is Apple's software used to broadcast and play audio and video via the Internet. It competes against similar software from RealNetworks, Microsoft, and others.
"We're offering more tools for content providers to expand the business to go with QuickTime TV," said Phil Schiller, vice president of worldwide marketing for Apple.
Put together, the changes to the software may help Apple regain some of the support it was losing. Today, CNN.com, one of the most popular news destinations on the Web, said it is partnering with Apple to use the latest version of QuickTime to stream multimedia news to users. CNN.com will also offer video from the network's TV and radio broadcast programs as part of Apple's "QuickTime TV network," as the service is being called.
Last year, Apple was losing momentum in the market for multimedia software because at the time, QuickTime didn't offer the same live streaming capabilities that RealNetworks or Microsoft offered with their software. Streaming refers to the ability to play multimedia content virtually in real time, as opposed to content that has to be downloaded before it can be played back. Back then, CNN.com was de-emphasizing its use of QuickTime because it took up more power from CNN's server computers than other streaming software.
However, since the release of QuickTime 4.0, which added live streaming features, Apple has been able to aggressively add content providers to its QuickTime TV showcase. In addition to CNN.com, the company also signed on five new content providers such as MTV and the Financial Times to go with its current lineup of Fox News, Bloomberg, Disney, ESPN, and others.
Many of those companies are likely interested in new features demonstrated today. One such technology lets viewers click on an ad in a live broadcast; viewers are then whisked to a Web site where they can purchase merchandise. Another new feature lets a content provider create virtual pay-per-view channels so that only users who have paid to view an event, such as a live concert, can tune in.
In a way, Apple is attempting to achieve the long-held dream of interactive television, where viewers are encouraged to buy while watching.
Presumably, Apple could someday negotiate "referral fees" for such transactions in addition to revenue it could get by selling bandwidth and server space to businesses and consumers. No such plans have been formally announced, however.
To be sure, Apple still faces an uphill battle in the war over streaming software.
RealNetworks claims that its software is used by more than 85 percent of "streaming" media Web sites. To boot, Real is making inroads in the emerging information appliance market--a market that analysts expect will surpass PCs in terms of volume by 2003. Real's software is planned for use in upcoming "Internet radios" that don't require a PC to access live audio content as well as the WebTV Internet TV set-top and cable set-top boxes that Liberate Technologies is developing.
Play video
There are currently no comments for this post.