I’m a Boxee and an Apple fan and this post by Avner Ronen, CEO of Boxee, is clear, honest and rings true to me.

"We all watched the Apple announcement. We walked away feeling strongly confident about the space it left for Boxee to compete. We have a different view of what users want in their living rooms.  We are taking different paths to get there. The Boxee Box is going to be $100 more expensive than the Apple TV, but will give you the freedom to watch what you want. We think it’s worth it."

I care about ‘open’ conceptually but I care greatly about access to content and viewing it on the big screen.

A short but really good read. I’m certainly going to buy the Boxee Box.

On the other hand... another point from Greg Stirling:

"In addition to phones, browsers, music, games and TV, you can add social networking to the Apple-Google competitive matrix."

I’m not sure I really think this is true.

I’m not a believer that Google gets social at all and can pull it off even with acquisitions.

Apple and Ping…maybe. Social networks (aka “Facebook”) seem to thrive within closed or semi-closed infrastructures. My friend Gianluigi Cuccureddu, from here at AppMarket.tv  is convincing me that the breadth of the core subscriber base, the depth of the fan loyalty and a built in love fest with for music is a great framework. He thinks  it can become a “MySpace++ network of music fanatics at the least”…I’m starting to think that if it gets any steam, it will be much more.

Read Greg Sterling's good post in Search Engine Land “Apple vs. Google Part Deux: Social Networks And The “Battle For The Living Room”