Apple

[Slamz]

I'm a Netflix bull, but I have to disagree with that. Amazon Prime is absolutely a direct competitor, and quite a bit cheaper than Netflix (plus many people have it anyway). There are also a lot of direct competitors in countries outside the US (particularly the UK).

This is like saying that the apple orchard down the road is a direct competitor with Giant or Whole Foods. I mean yeah, I guess, for that one thing, but you're not going to quit going to the grocery store just because there's an apple orchard nearby that sells cheap apples. Amazon Prime has a very limited selection, doesn't seem to be getting much better and will, I think, always be a little frill on the side. Calling them a competitor with Netflix is a huge exaggeration -- exactly the mistake analysts were making back when Netflix was in the $60 range.

Amazon is more of a competitor for iTunes, with the real emphasis being on pay-per-view and digital purchases -- a market Netflix isn't in on.

From what I've seen, Redbox and foreign options are rowboats to Netflix's RMS Queen Mary 2. Recall that Netflix's stock went UP when Redbox revealed the extent of their streaming content. I think unless a new startup can hit the ground with a ton of capital to strike significant deals, they'll have a hard time budging Netflix. RedBox Instant is just like their kiosks -- cheap, but very very limited.

Netflix is not a unique product at all - anyone with some cash can do a streaming model.

Anyone with cash CAN do it, but they aren't. That's why Netflix remains unique. Apple COULD throw down a few billion and totally bust caps in Netflix and the streaming market but so far they haven't done so and quite possibly just aren't interested. Amazon probably COULD do it and might even have interests in that direction but they haven't. Meanwhile, Apple has real direct competitors across every market they're in, with no apparent technical advantage that I can think of in any of those markets.


I think one of Apple's real challenges today is their image. The whole company was built on the image of the underdog and counter-culture. There may be some irony in the fact that now that Apple is top-dog, the marketing campaign they used to build their company up no longer applies.

They may need a new image and that's just one more big question on top of the already huge question mark of what they're going to do next.