Although Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is about to release its AppleTV product that it hopes will bridge the divide among the PC and the living room entertainment center, how far has the consumer electronics world come in this arena? There have been numerous attempts to actually make the TV and PC one device -- or at least a nice ecosystem -- but have any caught on with consumers? Not a one, although there are arguments that some devices have made "inroads."
I say, to where? Only one person I know of has a complete bridge between his TV and home entertainment system and the content of his PC as well as a live pipe to the Internet from the television/main living room.
It took quite a bit of work to get there as well -- some calls to tech support, some weekends wasted and many hours spent (or so he tells me). Will AppleTV break this tradition? Our friends over at PVRWire believe that the AppleTV is just another product with severe limitations, and that Apple just wants all customers to get used to buying content from the iTunes store.
I agree with the move -- but why should Apple do anything different? From what it appears to be, the AppleTV is not some breakthrough product -- there have been digital media receivers (DMRs) for years now and Microsoft Corp.'s (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows Media Player 11 features built-in media sharing as well. But that's media sharing -- not televisions crossroads with the Internet. Far from it.
Will the last step be to have live broadband Internet right on that new HDTV? If so, where is that product at in full force? Can Microsoft, Apple, Intel Corp. (NASDAQ:INTC) or anyone get this gravy train moving after almost a decade of hype? Story at 2012.
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