Apple TV and Hulu Plus (Continued)

Here's some additional thoughts on Hulu Plus being added as a channel to Apple TV:

Hulu Plus Quietly Comes to Apple TV

Interesting report of Hulu Plus being added as an app to Apple TV. As the report points out there has been no official announcement. Interesting.

If you combine Hulu Plus with the video enhancements of Mountain Lion OS and any other enhancements being worked on - then you start to wonder if all of these things could be soon combined and productized into an new Apple iTV?

UTStarcom Divests IPTV Units

Chinese manufacturer UTStarcom is divesting itself from its IPTV division. The division supposedly accounts for a third of the company's revenue but is still not profitable. The IPTV division will become a stand-alone privately held company headed up by current UTStarcom CEO Jack Lu. I'm not sure if having the current CEO take over the new IPTV company shows confidence that the company will be a success or whether Jack Lu is being forced out of UTStarcom to take over the division that was a drag on the overall bottom line.

I have always wondered why UTStarcom didn't try to crack the North American market. When I was exposed to the product a few years ago I found it to be a solid product at half the price of domestic US competition.

Motley Fool Misses Big Picture on Apple iTV

The Motley Fool is normally pretty spot on in their analysis but when it comes to Apple's potential iTV offering they really miss the big picture. Here's why...

Redbox Instant by Verizon

When you think of it the Redbox Instant by Verizon product is genius. The child of a joint venture between Verizon and Coinstar's Redbox - the service plays off the strengths of both companies. Verizon handles most of the bandwidth traffic requirements (like a free CDN for Redbox) while Redbox handles the content rights which will pretty much be same movies you'll find on Amazon, Netflix or iTunes. Want a newer DVD release? You can try one of the Redbox kiosks - a wrinkle you won't find from any of the competing services.

Redbox enhances their existing offering with this service and Verizon adds traffic to their existing network. Win-win. The genius part is neither company is responsible for the last mile or wireless connectivity - the two areas where most of the customer issues will reside. Even if the customer is using Verizon DSL or Verizon Wireless - hey that's a different division!

Peter Kafka has a nice take on the new offering.

A Coming Wireless Urban Divide?

By some accounts there are over 85 million fixed network broadband connections and also 235 million wireless broadband connections.  That means there is almost one broadband connection per citizen of the US - but that doesn't mean everyone is connected. Is there a coming wireless urban divide?

AT and T's 2Q12 Earnings Highlights Notes

Some interesting things to point out regarding AT and T's second quarter 2012 earnings announcement.