DIVX was proposed as an alternative to video rentals. You'd go and buy a DIVX disk for a small fee (under $5) and then go home and put it in your DIVX player. You'd have 48 hours to watch it. When you were done you could either:
- Throw it away since you'd never watch it again (like The Box, oh man I don't think I've seen a worse movie in ages!)
- Pay a fee to watch it again over the next couple of days
- Pay a license fee to watch it unlimited amount of times.
Forgetting the horribly wasteful practice of buying a disc and tossing it out (like The Box...seriously...bad!), there are so many problems with this model that seem glaringly obvious from the outset. Paying each time you're watching something? Paying a fee after you've bought it so you can watch it over and over again? Hooking up a separate phone line to pay to watch these discs (This was in the days before fast internet and wireless networks in homes)? Never mind the fact that most people then weren't comfortable sending their credit card information over a phone line, there were enough "This is a bad idea" moments before you ever got to that part.
Fast forward almost a decade, and Apple has launched the new version of AppleTV as a set top box where you can rent content that is sent down to the box, but not stored there. Once you're done, you have to rent it again or go to another machine, buy it there, and then stream it from that machine (or copy to a DVD) so you can watch it on your TV.
Sound familiar? To me this sure sounds like the DIVX model. Today people are more comfortable sending credit card information online, and there are more wireless networks in homes, but it's still locking people into a closed loop system where you have to pay per use. And the AppleTV doesn't even have the unlimited license model. It's ALL rental.
This seems like a huge step backwards, actually removing features from the AppleTV that made it a media hub and instead turning it into a video version of the Kindle. Now, I like the Kindle, but imagine if there was an iPad-like Kindle which was discontinued and replaced with the current one. Most people would consider this a downgrade.
Combine this with Apple's continued neglect of the iPod Classic, and we're seeing a shift in Apple's philosophy. The idea of having devices that provide access to your entire media library is fading away, being replaced with a type of rental model - Renting from the service in the case of AppleTV, and also renting from your own library to fill devices with smaller storage capacity.
I've written before about how I would love to see a cloud-based media distribution model between Apple devices. This is still a possibility, but it's feeling like we're more likely to see a closed loop model, with Apple being the alpha and omega.







