The column you are about to read contains material of an adult nature and is inappropriate for those under the age of 18 or those who are of a sensitive nature! It contains material of a XXX nature. If you are in either of those categories, please stop reading now and return to MacWEEK.com immediately! If you elect to continue: myself, Echo 4, RFI, Mac Publishing, MacWEEK, whomsoever, will not be held responsible or liable for any reactions, etc. that might occur. Keep smelling salts or a cold shower close at hand. You have been warned!
Now that I've ensured that everybody will read this column, I might as well start off with what prompted me to write it. Recently, an Apple shareholder sent me an e-mail about Quick Time TV "dot com" and the potential for it to cause confusion once QuickTime 4.0, QuickTime Streaming Server, and QT-TV/QTTV.com are launched. You see, apparently Quick Time TV dot com is part of what is euphemistically referred to as an "adult content" site. Others just refer to it as pornography, porn, or "Triple X." The biggest money maker on the Internet. That shareholder was rightfully concerned that people might go there rather than Apple's sites and get an eyeful, as it were. Not to mention having something other than their mind being turned on.
Yes. "Adult content" is the biggest money maker on the Internet if you use the amount of traffic and dollars it generates as a gauge. Millions upon millions of Internet users are not turning their minds on, but are turning on something else, when they sit down in front of their computers and surf the Internet; as long as they have plastic in hand to pay for the view. Something they routinely and freely do. And about 85% of those sites use QuickTime as it's ubiquitous and is the most popular format for the XXX Internet industry as it has the highest quality and can also compress MPEG, does AVI, etc. And when it does Real Time Streaming Protocol? Katie bar the door. "Mind on?" Don't think so!
Disbelieve? Recently, CNBC ran a story about the upcoming IPO of the largest "adult content" (there's that euphemism again!) Internet company. CNBC wondered if it was "too hot for Wall Street to handle." You're kidding, right Maria "Money Honey" Bartiromo? Right? Wall Street? The place that had a "Boom Boom Room" scandal? Come on. Whatever anyone's qualms about that industry, I suspect that even more people will be chasing that stock than AOL, Amazon.com, Yahoo! and the "dot com" tulip bulb type Internet stocks. Why? The darn thing is making real money, profits and even earnings! Now and not sometime in the next millennium. Wall Street will like that because then they can put an honest P/E and valuation on the stock. Not having to justify why it's trading at a P/E of 1000 or selling at a multiple of 800 times sales. And I'm wondering how long it will last before someone buys the company. Probably with inflated Internet stock as currency.
If the sheer volume of traffic to all of the XXX sites is any indication, as soon as they adopt QuickTime Streaming Server with Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP), Apple will see a significant increase in the downloads of QT4 and sales of QT4 Pro. Not just for viewing, but QT4 Pro will allow them to edit, compile, etc. personalized films of their downloads, purchases, and the like. Did you ever stop to think why the person who authored the Melissa virus named it after a stripper in Florida? I don't think he was turning his mind on while surfing the Internet because Melissa promoted XXX sites.
And yes, adopt they will. It will probably start the greatest stampede amongst the "adult oriented content" sites as it will give them an entirely new thing to milk. The greatest stampede since the "adult content" industry adopted VHS and put a lot of "XXX Movie Theaters" out of business as people could then watch the movies in the comfort of their homes without worrying about having a Pee Wee Herman type embarrassing incident.
Competition will also cause them to do it. And a lot of (ahem!) entrepreneurs, budding Hugh Hefners, Bob Gucciones and Larry Flynts will see the money to be made. For an investment of $10,000 or less they too can tap into the biggest money maker on the Internet. The potential Return On Investment (ROI) would be staggering. As soon as those sites adopt it, you can expect a lot of "Free Preview" type junk e-mails landing in your inbox touting the fact that it's a "Live Real Time" event and that it's also a viewer participation interactive site. Once you pay your money with your plastic (discreetly billed by an innocuous sounding company), you too can watch a live event and offer your wants, desires and suggestions. Don't think it won't happen, it will. No matter how distasteful you, I or anyone else might find it.
Of course, Apple's official position will be that they are dismayed that their technology is being put to use for such base and salacious purposes, even as their revenues from sales of that technology balloons. They're not being hypocritical because they can't be held accountable or control what purposes the technologies are put to use. Free marketeers and libertarians would howl in protest if they tried. Liken it to the police chief in "Casablanca" saying that he was "Shocked. Shocked!" that gambling was going on in Rick's even as he was being handed his winnings.
During the Golden Convergence and Set Top Box (one of Apple's InteractiveTV Set Top Boxes was recently auctioned off on eBay!) discussions, this very use was posited as being one of the driving forces behind its mass adoption. Just like it drove sales of VCRs once prices came down. Those in Hollywood know this and some even showed me the evidence to back up their assertions. Their logic isn't flawed. It's all too true and is reflective of human nature. Empirical evidence can't be discounted or dismissed. As one Hollywood insider opined: "Yeah. They might say they bought it for the kids to use it for Disney Interactive, but as soon as the kids go to sleep on goes 'The Devil and Ms. Jones.' Look at the numbers." They were referring to the revenues generated by the "Adult Industry." Not to mention the traffic and revenues of the "adult oriented content" Internet sites.
Listen. I'm not endorsing or promoting this use of QuickTime Streaming Server, I'm just pointing out what will happen and why it will be one of the catalysts behind the adoption of QT4, QT4 Pro (has another meaning now, doesn't it?), and QuickTime Streaming Server with Real Time Streaming Protocol. If the concerns about "Quick Time TV" are justified, then you have all the evidence you need and the case has been made.
As soon as QuickTime Streaming Server is released onto the markets, the convergence genie is out of the bottle and there's no way that Apple, or anyone else for that matter, will be able to stuff it back in. As soon as Set Top Boxes are deployed, and "adult content" consumers realize that they can get broadcast quality live interactive content on their televisions then the adoption stampede begins.
Of course, not everyone who adopts these technologies will do so for those purposes, but a lot of them will. I still remember the jokes people made when they saw that someone had gotten a VCR when they were still knew and a lot of mainstream titles weren't on the markets yet. You can guess the content of the jokes. And if there wasn't a market for this type of content, the numbers wouldn't be there. Given the numbers, venture capitalists, Wall Street and other types of investors will be there. Even if it's a dirty secret that people want to ignore and not talk about. It's a sad fact of life, but it's there and it's true.
"Debbie Does QuickTime" is already a reality and we might as well accept the fact that "Debbie Does QuickTime with Real Time Streaming Protocol" will become a reality as well. It's going to happen and there's nothing that anyone can do about it.
And while I'm not a consumer of this type of content (as I don't consider it a "spectator sport" as it were), I can't ignore the fact that there are a lot of people who do. If there weren't then the numbers wouldn't be there. Most don't usually publicly admit consuming that content, but if most people don't then where are the numbers coming from? It's like the polls during the Impeachment proceedings saying that they were sick and tired of Monica, etc. but then stampeded en masse to watch Monica's interviews and buy her book. What they say in public isn't what they necessarily do in private.
"Debbie Does QuickTime," coming soon to an adult site near you. Well, at least your browser or Set Top Box.