Bloomberg is reporting that Apple may be preparing to license their proprietary AirPlay technology to consumer electronics companies, so that they can integrate it directly into their own products. A perfect example of this would be television sets. This of course, would eliminate the need for Apple’s own Apple TV.
Here’s an excerpt:
An expanded AirPlay would let users stream programming wirelessly from an Apple mobile device to a TV that carries the technology. That may spur wider use of Apples services and devices in consumers living rooms.
Apple currently only licenses AirPlay for audio to companies like Pioneer who use it to stream audio to home audio equipment. They reportedly pay Apple $4 for each component sold that uses AirPlay.
This doesn’t sound like a stretch to me. That said, this depends entirely on what market Apple plans to enter. If they’re primarily interested in being a content supplier, through iTunes, then this would be the move to make. If however, they’re more interested in selling more hardware, the Apple TV, then this move would totally devalue that device. It could in turn however, make iOS devices even more appealing, if they’re out-of-the-box capable of integrating with an AirPlay equipped TV.
This will be interesting to watch, but it all boils down to how Apple wants to sell you this technology. Either integrated directly into TV and Apple making money off of licensing, or directly through the sales of Apple TVs.
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