In mid-December, the firm ChangeWave Alliance (via SeekingAlpha.com) surveyed 228 consumer electronics industry professionals on trends for the digital living room. The survey focused on the future of "media centers," which they defined as "high powered devices capable of managing a variety of digital content in the living room or around the home."

No surprise that Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) dominated responses from industry professionals, receiving 43% of total responses. Other manufacturers in the study included Sony (with 14%), Microsoft (totaling 11%), TiVo (8%), and HP (7%). And this was BEFORE Apple's iTV made its debut at the Macworld Conference earlier this month.

Not only should these living room-based electronics-makers be wary, but Blockbuster, Netflix and other video software providers should keep their guard up, as more and more consumers seem to be betting their future on the iTunes movie store.

The survey also revealed that 16% of the industry pros think that it's "very likely" that iTv will be a "huge success" while 48% believed the success of Apple's iTV to be "somewhat" likely. While only 9% rated the device's success as very unlikely. I think I'll put it higher on my list of cool electronics to purchase for my college dorm room... if all goes accordingly.

Apple's iTV was the big new product announcement that came out not too long ago and created a lot of excitement. However the product will not actually be shipping until the first quarter of 2007, despite being announced in September 2006. That's a long wait for shipping. A lot of people were puzzled, as Apple usually does not like to pre-announce its product road map.

During its most recent earnings report, however, Apple Computer, Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) explained that it wanted to show customers a complete look at the whole digital media package strategy Apple was working on. This would probably be an indication that Apple was sending a message about iTunes movie sales, and why they would be worth downloading.

The pre-announcement also lets movie studios know that Apple had a strategy set up for movie downloads, not just customers. But as customers flock to the store to download videos the studios would probably follow. Apple indicated being happy with movie downloads and that they would soon release figures down the road.

Tobias Buckell is an author, freelancer, and professional blogger. He owns shares in Apple.

One interesting note about the iTV that hasn't received all that much analysis as one would expect in the general media is the fact that the iTV has a small hard drive in it. Disney's Bob Iger let this little aside drop during a Goldman Sachs conference where the big announcement was how many Disney movies had been sold through iTunes in the first week.

The implication of the iTV device having a hard drive is interesting, because it beefs up the iTV's media capability. This isn't just an iTunes streaming device, but a competitor to digital video recorders like TiVo. Add to that this Roughly Drafted article that points out that the iTV has a HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) and you can see that Apple is going after a rich multimedia experience and that this is not a simple wireless settop box.

Mr. Iger even makes such a reference when he says at the same conference that "...it may be an opportunity to actually charge people for a TVR experience. In that if they've forgotten to set their TiVo device or their TVR or they just have no plan to do it but they want to watch an episode that they missed, they can go to iTunes, buy it for $1.99..."

Now, the iTV doesn't show signs of being able to snag cable content like your average DVR, which makes it not quite the universal replacement device. But it will be interesting to see how large the hard drive will be, and whether iTV will be able to be modified to work as a DVR by 3rd party programs or even Apple itself thanks to the hard drive. All this makes for iTV being a very interesting salvo in Apple's battle to become a media company with media solutions, and certainly an exciting development in Apple's quest to become the center of the digital entertainment arena, linking both the traditional entertainment area and the new.

Will iTV be able to solidly compete with DVRs, or will it just be an addition for the iTunes faithful? And will you be buying one?

Tobias Buckell is a freelancer, author, professional blogger, and owns shares in Apple stock.

Apple Computer, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) ended the day at $75.26, up $1.49, a 2.02% increase in price. Certainly a lot of that can be attributed to some positive news that has come out over the first half of the week. Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is rumored to be planning to work with Apple's iTV, and Apple has already cleared $1 million in movie sales in one week, prompting Disney to predict that it will bring in $50 million in sales in the program's first year.

All of this points to Apple both incorporating web 2.0 video strategies and its download strategies into its media ecology, as well as providing a set top box that brings it all together. No wonder the buzz seems to be growing strong for Apple stock.

When Apple Computer, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) releases its just-announced iTV audio/video home entertainment device early next year, will the company want to sent just its content from a customer's computer to a home television and audio system? There is now quite a bit of content featured on iTunes -- millions of songs, hundreds of television shows from almost every network, and now full-length movies. But what if consumers don't buy a huge amount of content from the iTunes music store but still want to zap audio and video from their iTV to the big screen in the living room?

Enter Google Video. Seriously. There are talks on the virtual street that Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) may become the primary content provider for the iTV device based on rumored talks the Internet search leader has had with Apple. With Google CEO Eric Schmidt now sitting on the Apple board of directors maybe this will be the first partnership between the two companies? Google Video and Apple iTunes do have some crossover, both sell television shows for a fee, but the multitudes of non-commercial content found on Google Video dwarfs the content found on Apple iTunes. Between YouTube.com and Google Video there are millions of videos and clips just waiting to be viewed at any time.

Ross Rubin, an NPD analyst, says this about a possible partnership: "Google and all its competitors are focused on a three-screen approach right now; whether you're accessing them or their content on a computer screen, or on some kind of a handheld product, or on your high-definition TV." This sounds strikingly similar to Google's mission: to make information available anywhere, anytime, using any device. That information could be video, text, or audio, so this rumor fits right up there. As a Google investor, what should your questions be here? It's great that Google will be possibly getting off the computer "couch" and joining in on the fun in the living room, but I have to wonder how the company will monetize this possible effort. That or maybe it's just a brand-buidling exercise, perhaps.