Originally set for launch in June 2016, BitTorrent Live is now available on iOS
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge :
Context & Ripple Effects
BitTorrent has spent 2016 converting its peer-to-peer technology into consumer streaming apps: first the P2P live streaming app on Apple TV in February, then BitTorrent Now on iOS and Apple TV over the summer. Live's iOS arrival closes the loop on a product that missed its planned June launch window.
First-order effects
- iOS users can now run BitTorrent Live on phones, extending a service previously confined to Apple TV and giving BitTorrent a mobile footprint for its P2P streaming stack.
Second-order effects
- BitTorrent now fields two competing consumer apps on the same platform — Live and BitTorrent Now — splitting its own audience and forcing an internal question about which format carries the P2P strategy.
Third-order effects
- The later arc of this coverage shows where the pattern led: the Sling TV-style Live service was eventually retired and relaunched as a Snapchat-like social app, suggesting P2P live streaming struggled to sustain itself as a broadcast substitute.
The trend: BitTorrent is iterating its P2P core through successive consumer app formats — TV streaming, media discovery, social video — searching for the one that sticks.