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Very interesting, particularly the parts where the goals he describes wander off from where Apple is today. For instance... The Internet is nothing new. It has

Very interesting, particularly the parts where the goals he describes wander off from where Apple is today. For instance... The Internet is nothing new. It has been happening for 10 years. Finally, now, the wave is cresting on the general computer user. And I love it. I think the den is far more interesting than the living room. Putting the Internet into people's houses is going to be really what the information superhighway is all about, not digital convergence in the set-top box. All that's going to do is put the video rental stores out of business and save me a trip to rent my movie. I'm not very excited about that. I'm not excited about home shopping. I'm very excited about having the Internet in my den. ...whereas these days "home shopping" for media is obviously a huge source of revenue for Apple.

karzeem 17y ago
It's interesting that in 1994, Steve Jobs considered it a foregone conclusion that video rental stores would get killed by the internet. He says it so blithely that it seems like it was conventional wisdom. The interesting part is that a) Netflix wasn't founded until three years later, and b) it's only now that we're starting to get good products for renting movies via the internet.
- jfarmer 17y ago
  I think everyone "knew" video delivery would go online back then. But what's the saying? Everyone overestimates how much will happen in 5 years, and underestimates how much will happen in 15.
- pyre 17y ago
  He doesn't say that he knows that the video rental stores are going out of business. He says about 'digital convergence in the set-top box', that "All that's going to do is put the video rental stores out of business and save me a trip to rent my movie." It's not hard to see that hooking the Internet up to a television saves will allow you to have video delivered to your television over the Internet. You'll notice that he's poo-pooing the digital set-top box in that quote, not praising it.
  - jfarmer 17y ago
    And yet we have AppleTV. :) I think it was mostly posturing.

karzeem 17y ago

It's interesting that in 1994, Steve Jobs considered it a foregone conclusion that video rental stores would get killed by the internet. He says it so blithely that it seems like it was conventional wisdom. The interesting part is that a) Netflix wasn't founded until three years later, and b) it's only now that we're starting to get good products for renting movies via the internet.

jfarmer 17y ago
I think everyone "knew" video delivery would go online back then. But what's the saying? Everyone overestimates how much will happen in 5 years, and underestimates how much will happen in 15.
pyre 17y ago
He doesn't say that he knows that the video rental stores are going out of business. He says about 'digital convergence in the set-top box', that "All that's going to do is put the video rental stores out of business and save me a trip to rent my movie." It's not hard to see that hooking the Internet up to a television saves will allow you to have video delivered to your television over the Internet. You'll notice that he's poo-pooing the digital set-top box in that quote, not praising it.
- jfarmer 17y ago
  And yet we have AppleTV. :) I think it was mostly posturing.