Analyst: Apple Prepping a Digital Video Locker

12 Apr, 2011 By: Erik Gruenwedel

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Apple Inc. is readying a cloud-based subscription digital storage system that would focus on video content, including movies and TV shows, an analyst said.

The unnamed platform would operate domestically (with an international link in the works) linking video content with the Apple iPhone, iPad, iTouch and a possible standalone iTV. Such a system would rival similar platforms such as Sony-backed UltraViolet and Disney’s KeyChest.

Peter Misek, an analyst with Jeffries & Co., said that in talks with developers and content owners he came to believe Apple’s data center in North Carolina would soon go live, with an adjacent facility earmarked for construction as well.

“We find it notable that the content companies, citing a lack of domain license, asked Cablevision to remove channels from its iPad app,” Misek wrote in a note. “We believe these same companies are negotiating some sort of deal with Apple.”

The analyst believes Steve Jobs’ last act before relinquishing control of the company includes overhauling video distribution to the consumer similar to Apple’s transformation of mobile, computing and music.

“It is also notable that his authorized biography is due in 2012,” Misek wrote.

Separately, Brian White, analyst with Ticonderoga Securities in New York, said Apple appeared on course to launch a Chinese-made standalone HDTV, which he said would mesh nicely with the company’s device-centric reputation.

"Our research suggests this smart TV would go well beyond the miniature $99 second-generation Apple TV that the company released last fall and provide a full-blown TV product for consumers," White wrote in a note. “The combination of Apple's powerful ecosystem, industrial design savvy, powerful brand and ability to reinvent product categories could make Apple a powerful force in the TV world over the next few years.”

A move by Apple into video storage also could coincide with Amazon’s launch last month of separate cloud-based audio and video digital storage systems for the Web and Android devices that accept media purchases from anywhere. The online retail behemoth gives registered consumers 5GB of cloud-based storage, with additional annual $1-per-GB upgrades from 20 GB to 1,000 GB (1 TB).

Amazon, in a letter obtained by Billboard magazine, claimed its storage system has driven music sales in 2011.

An Apple representative was not immediately available for comment.

 

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