Three Markets That Were Changed By Apple Overnight

Apple's (AAPL) announcements Tuesday mostly confirmed what we already knew. And even though the broad strokes were expected, some of the details of the actual announcements will have ripple effects into other parts of the industry. Specifically:

1. The new iPod pricing just cut off Microsoft's Zune at the knees. Microsoft's (MSFT) first Zune device is a rebranded Toshiba (TOSBF.PK) Gigabeat, which was planned to launch at $299. But with the dominant market share video iPod now starting at $249, that price is a non-starter. And since Microsoft is not the leader but the challenger in this market, Zune will have be be priced less than Apple's offering to get any traction. Microsoft's Robbie Bach is probably spending this week throwing darts at Steve Jobs' photo, since he just added several million dollars of red ink to Robbie's launch plans.

2. Apple's iTV pricing also whacked TiVO's Series3 video recorder. I'm a huge TiVO (TIVO) fan, and I was excited to see the latest HDTV Series 3 launch this week. But it's launch price is $799 -- and it would cost me another $199 to move over my lifetime service subscription. With Apple's iTV planning to launch at $299 and offering many (not all) of the same features of TiVO, suddenly, the decision to stick with TiVO may be a lot tougher to make. And at the very least, Apple's pre-announcement will put a chill on the DVR market over the Christmas selling season and hurt TiVO's pipeline of customers.

3. Apple's iTV isn't Apple's final living room play. The iTV box Steve Jobs showed is really a video Airport Express, probably with 802.11n wireless networking. But Steve showed that product just to demonstrate the completeness of his vision for delivering movies to the living room, not to give away his living room strategy. iTV really exists just to support "legacy TVs" -- that is, ones you already own. But the components that fit so nicely into a Mac mini case fit just as well inside an LCD display (as demonstrated by the 24-inch iMac announced last week) or a plasma TV -- better in fact, since it wouldn't require all the myriad connectors on the iTV. The fact that Apple didn't fire a shot across the bow of TV makers like Sony and Matsushita yesterday doesn't mean that it only intends to be a set-top box maker. It only means that Apple doesn't have all the pieces in place to completely blow people away -- yet.

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