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And the more popular Hulu becomes, the less compelling Apple's strategy of renting and selling video content online is, says Gartner (IT) analyst Michael McGuire. "Over time, perhaps the direct-payment model goes away," he says.
I strongly disagree. Currently, Hulu's strength is also its weakness, as users need to fiddle with the keyboard and mouse in order to watch content on their computer. On the other hand, Apple TV is very easy to hook-up to a large TV and it is conveniently and effectively controlled by the user with just a simple, small remote. I have already replaced my conventional TV with a MacMini and an LCD computer monitor. Installing a free software such as Boxee or Miro' or Joost, allows me to watch Internet video content without being forced to use a keyboard. Boxee also can be linked to my Netflix account so that I can, again, watch movies and control playback from the Apple Remote. Boxee used to be able to provide access to Hulu's content but Hulu has recently denied access to Boxee users. Hulu could be offered as a service for Apple TV users. Or it could/should create its own Hulu desktop app to allow users to access its content using a remote of their choice. I am a big fan of Hulu but I do not believe that the ad-free, paid content provided by Apple is going to become weaker because of Hulu. On the contrary, I believe that ad-free content is going to grow given the unbearable quality of modern TV commercials, especially for children.
