Hi Chris - I want to work for your company! I’d love to see Apple TV in action. And granted, broadband here is woeful and will continue to be so for quite some time. As you say, APPLEBOX is a good middle ground .. there’s a lot to play out in the VOD arena and I think APPLEBOX will sit comfortably as the home entertainment market evolves in the future!

Last week I experienced Apple’s own movie rental system at a conference I attended. Although its not available in Australia yet, I can say that I was very impressed with both the implementation and delivery of the product. BUT, the delivery revolves around one crucial point: to get the best experience you need the AppleTV box. This essentially receives the digital content and displays it on your TV. Of course you can download the movie to your computer and watch it either there or on, say, an iPod, but there’s no denying that movies are meant to be watched on TVs and big screens. Similar to the stock standard DVD player that you can pick up from 7Eleven, the AppleTV is a piece of hardware that without which the whole system more or less falls apart.

With the AppleTV and Apple’s movie rentals (all done via iTunes) movies can be watched straight away. You don’t have to wait for the movie to download in its entirety, thus making it a true video on demand experience. While you didn’t go into the broadband issue in depth, Simon, you no doubt agree that its a big player in effective delivery of this medium. Apple run their movie and music download service from pretty hardcore servers in the US, but with the appalling state of broadband in this country, its difficult to see this method of delivery taking off in the near future.

Apple’s movie rental system is a great concept and has worked an absolute treat in the US (even though it is still in its infancy). Australia though….. that’s another ball game altogether.

But that’s where APPLEBOX excels. It combines the familiarity of iTunes (which 87% of the portable music player market currently use) with its iTunesesque interface, and still gives customers a fantastic “face to face” in store experience when they collect their DVD.

You might say that APPLEBOX is in the middle ground. From my point of view, for what its worth having seen Apple’s own system and knowing that it is in fact coming sooner than people expect, I can honestly say that I think APPLEBOX is going to be a huge success.

Deloittes and EzyDVD conducted an extensive due diligence process during November.

It was an integral condition that prior to the Zavis joining the board that;

a) due diligence is completed to EzyDVD’s satisfaction
b) the Company had funding to go forward

Both these criteria were met, with (b) being the Cornell $4m facility.

So, whilst I wont comment on the rest, as it is debatable, had EzyDVD completed their part of the bargain, which was leveraging their existing buying power to negotiate/renegotiate Hollywood terms that were more favourable, and actually launched the website within 4 weeks of signing the deal in September - things may be different.

Note that I am not a director, and have not had an operational role in ReelTime since early November. Note also that the incoming CEO conducted own due diligence, and that the company remained trading on the ASX some 3 1/2 months post my departure. So, I have no idea what went “wrong” in the last 2-3 weeks, but, whilst easy to criticise, the model and market is a difficult one.