The Gong Show

iPhone in the Living Room

Image by new-york-city via Flickr

Silicon Alley Insider has a story today asking “Is the iPhone Apple’s Key to the Living Room?” The gist of the article is that there are some hooks in the iPhone API that enable it to be connected via a cable to a TV as a gaming platform. It’s a bit of a yawn.

My answer to the title of this article is “yes, absolutely, the iPhone will be essential to the living room,” but not at all in the way that the article predicts.  The iPhone is going to be the universal remote for all media players, set top devices, TVs, etc. All your living room devices will be accessible via your wifi network, and the iPhone will a rich, visual remote control via wifi. The “Remote” app in the app store is just a taste of how it will all work.

In the future all media in the living room will be digital (unless you’re being intentionally retro and can’t give up your old LP collection). In the early years your media library will be housed locally on a PC or dedicated server, but eventually it will all move to the cloud. You can browse your library on the TV, but the most convenient way to browse will be directly on your remote.  No more worrying about pointing the remote directly at the device your using, since controlling via wifi doesn’t require line-of-sight access.  You will be able to flip through your library, or your friends’ libraries, see what your friends have watched recently and recommend to you, or get recommendations based on your own ratings (informed by community ratings data) in a Netflix-esque rating experience. You can manage queues, playlists, subscriptions, favorites, etc all directly on your iPhone remote.

Boxee is certainly a part of this vision.  Much of the behavior I’m describing is inspired based on my initial usage of Boxee, particularly the social side of the new living room.

But, the most important point is that, I’m convinced that the iPhone is the living room remote of the future. I’m so convinced for two reasons:

One) The iPhone has by far the best product design of any handheld touchscreen device (both physical and software design).  Until that fact changes, they will continue to outsell the competition, despite the higher price points.

Two) Apple doesn’t have to lift a finger to get killer remote apps for all the most popular set top boxes and TVs.  Set top box developers will inevitably add wifi to their devices as more and more content moves to the cloud.  Then either first-party set top box software developers or third party hacker enthusiasts will make the iPhone remote apps via the iPhone API and distribute the fruits of their labor via the App Store.  I suspect there will be multiple remote apps for the most popular devices, and the Darwinian nature of the App Store will make the cream rise to the top.  And in the end, every worthy set top device will have a great iPhone remote.