Solution: Apple becomes a giant fiber optic isp, and produces a beautiful, fast, and easy to use internet tv. All Content providers are then forced to get with apple. Comcast and century link go out of business. Apple owns another 100 billion dollar market.
It's one thing to wire one city. The U.S. is a big, BIG place. North America is even bigger. The world is far bigger than that. When would you see us all being able to hook up to this Apple fiber everywhere service? 2020? 2040?
Did Google put the cable providers out of business in Kansas City? Is Googles subscription rate there significantly undercutting the cable company's rate? Is Googles broadband rate there genuinely competitive? Note:
http://arstechnica.com/business/2012/07/google-fiber-launches-in-kansas-city/ There's no al-a-carte there... and no $5 or $10 or $20-per-month for "just what I want to watch" either). Instead, it's right up there in very familiar pricing territory.
Verizon really likes profit and has been trying to break into fiber for a very long time. But they are still a long way from nationwide fiber. They would certainly like that "$100 Billion market" too. If the money was there- and easy to get by "simply" wiring everyone up- they'd already have that fiber in place...
everywhere. Also note that where Verizon has built out that fiber, no one is seeing massive savings in their monthly fee for television subscriptions. Verizons goal is not to wire the world with fiber and then see current model cash flows get cut by 80%, 90% or more. See:
http://www22.verizon.com/home/fiostv/plans/ Again, no al-a-carte. No 85% or more off of what we pay now. Etc.
There's 2 examples. Apple likes it's profits too. It likes very fat margins. Do we really think that Apple would spend the HUGE money to fiber wire the nation(s) and then sell us al-a-carte at $5-$10-$20/month? Why would they do that? Everything we see from Apple revolves around serving up a premium experience for a premium price. How do we go from them wiring the nation(s) to the dream of dirt cheap programming?
You are correct about one thing: for the "dream" to have any chance, Apple must be able to bypass the middlemen (the Comcasts, Time Warners, etc). They need to fill in the expensive (and readily variable) gap between us and iCloud with a direct connection. Instead of running new wire on a national/international scale, this would probably be much more doable if they bought- say- DISH network, then repurposed that for flowing content from iCloud to end users. That's still only a U.S. or North America solution... but much more likely than wiring the entire country/continent.
While Apple's solution must depend on pipes owned by Comcasts, etc, the broadband tolls would simply rise to make up for any loss of cable TV subscription revenue. The missing piece is not a TV; it's this direct link between us and iCloud. That's the rumor we need to see for any of this to have any chance at reality. Else, it's just a TV or not a TV rumor, and nothing more.
