Set-tops--Apple or not--just don't get no respect

From the earliest days of cable-ready TVs, consumers have disliked set-top boxes and, despite efforts by cable and satellite providers to spruce them up with features and applications, that antipathy continues. "Today we are no more interesting than an electric or gas company--it's just not exciting anymore," said Ira Bahr, Dish Network's (Nasdaq: DISH) chief marketing officer, while delivering a keynote address at Set Top Box 2010 in San Jose, Calif.

And yet, Bahr held out hope that a $99 Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) set-top box might break that trend because "someone will actually pay $99 for a set-top box." Dish, of course, is closely allied with Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG) efforts to build its own set-top box this fall and is also working within its own structure to deliver video to the Web.

FierceCable tomorrow will present another viewpoint on the set-top space when it presents a Q&A with Motorola (NYSE: MOT) CTO David Grubb.

For more:
- see this story

Related articles:
Apple TV, Google TV: 'Nah, it can't work'
Set-top box demand 'softens;' subscriber counts down
tru2way becoming truNOway as Panasonic drops TV sets
Cable's set-top duopoly rose to the top by doing the things cable operators want