Boxee
One of the big “aha moments” for me in the past couple years came when I hooked up a Mac Mini to a large display in our family room in the spring of 2007. Slowly but surely, our family started using the Mac Mini instead of the cable set-top box and the DVD player.
Context & Ripple Effects
A 2007 account of the Mac Mini as an HDTV hub documented the same behavior shift: a general-purpose computer replacing separate cable and DVD hardware in the living room. Boxee was built around the first Apple TV and has already added Hulu alongside music, video, and web content.
Union Square Ventures’ backing puts capital behind software that makes that computer-led setup easier to use, while Boxee’s Apple TV installation route offers an alternative to the device’s iTunes-centered experience.
First-order effects
- Boxee gains Union Square Ventures as an investor as it pursues the living-room media market, strengthening its ability to develop a unified interface for web and local content.
- Apple TV owners can use Boxee to play music, video, and web-based content outside Apple’s iTunes tether; Hulu’s availability gives the software a notable web-video source.
Second-order effects
- Cable set-top boxes and DVD players face a more credible substitute among households willing to attach a Mac Mini or modify an Apple TV, shifting competition toward the software interface and available content.
- Content services such as Hulu gain a TV-screen distribution path through Boxee, making software aggregators more important gatekeepers to viewers than any single media device.
Third-order effects
- If computer-based media hubs become simpler to deploy, living-room entertainment can move from dedicated hardware controlled by cable and device vendors toward software layers that combine local files and web services.
- Boxee’s Apple TV workaround highlights a structural tension for closed media devices: users value a broader content catalog, while platform owners seek to retain control over the experience.
The trend: Living-room media is beginning to shift from single-purpose cable and disc hardware toward software hubs that aggregate web and personal content on the television.