I used to agree on the Apple needs BluRay so i got an external drive. Now I'm thinking that there are so many ways to get HD content streaming that I'm less likely to need it. I already have software that converts my Blu-ray DVDs to H264 and it looks great.
If it's streaming, or even straight from digital cable, it's not true 1080p HD.
That said, many people claim they cannot see the difference between a DVD and a Blu-ray, but you can slap "HD" on anything that has the proper resolution - but that doesn't mean anything about the quality of the compression. A 2-hour movie needs 20-30 GB to be properly 1080p, and the small compressed files people download or stream blow up to 1080p, but the quality of the data is far worse.
Apple is never going to take over visual content like they did audio. Audio was ripe for it - they were the first legit music marketplace to become mainstream and get buzz, as it was an industry that did not exist and they had a complementary product to go along with it.
Then Apple got the fact that they could make a ton of money on players, but they could make giga-tons of cash by controlling the content. They failed at controlling TV content before, and I have a feeling whatever new TV device they come out with will land with just as much of a resounding thud.
The difference with TV/video is that they don't have a new product or a new market. They just are trying to control content for the sake of it without a compelling reason for consumers to allow them to do so as they did with audio. People do not want yet another device in their living rooms. People are quite literally out of connections and electrical outlets, and the psychological, "I don't want another box" is pretty strong when there is fierce competition out there that is already installed in your living room (a TiVo, XBOX, even a Blu-ray player etc. can bring you Amazon on Demand, Netflix, Hulu).
The only way Apple could begin to make it work would be to allow their content to be shown on all those devices we already have, and they will never do that - and even if they did, they still face the same competition which is already on those devices. Then they just become yet another vendor in the growing field of vying for your digital content delivery.
They missed the boat on revolutionizing TV. It's already been done by the DVR, and TiVo in particular. And while the TiVo is a much more powerful device, the generic DVR took over. In the MP3 realm, sure, a few MP3 players were out there, Apple didn't make the first - but they made the best and got it out there before most consumers even knew it was a product category. They became Kleenex - so identified with the product (tissues vs. MP3 players) that people even call non-Apple devices "iPods".
TV just isn't the same. And truth be told, bandwidth has been there awhile now. Video On Demand has been out in one form or another for 20 years (I remember watching "The Bodyguard" on demand back when I had to call the cable company to order it (and, like, talk to a person). We've been at the point for quite a number of years now that it's there, it's available, single purchase or streaming, and yet Blu-ray sales keep going up and up.
It will be interesting to see if they come up with anything truly new, or if it's just going to be yet another service among many. I expect there will be some little "Siri"-type "game changer" that gets people all riled up and then once the novelty wears off (you are already seeing articles about people who realized it's kind of idiotic to talk to your phone when you can do what you want faster with your fingers, and without looking silly talking to a virtual woman).
TV is safe and secure from total domination, thankfully.
