Although Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) continues to be the hottest consumer tech company in the world on many fronts, it doesn't always serve up a home run with each and every product it makes, markets and sells. Case in point: the AppleTV product.I love Apple products and always have. The ease of simplicity and excellent design are marvels of modern electronics. But what's always stuck in my side like a thorn is the inflexibility of the company's non-computer products. It's a reason I don't own a single Apple product.
But, the impending flop of the AppleTV product has just a little to do with inflexibility. Yes, there is a world outside Apple's iTunes, but if you own an AppleTV product, that's the environment you're locked into (with YouTube thrown in for good measure) without hacking your unit. Same goes for the iPod, as we all know.
Are consumers ready to get all that internet content from those PCs to those living room flat-screen televisions? The experience between HDTV prime-time broadcasts and a show downloaded from iTunes are two different things, and YouTube doesn't compare either. Consumers require the same programming choices, quality and flexibility as cable or satellite, but so far, no device has been able to supply that (including the AppleTV).
Now, to be fair, I've personally seen the AppleTV product in action and it was fantastic in its operation. At the end of the day, that high-definition DVR matched with a flat-screen television takes the cake completely. Yes, the AppleTV may have "completed the story" as Apple CEO Steve Jobs bandied last year, but not for the average living room television junkie. The truly disruptive product still does not exist to wean him or her away from Desperate Housewives in all its HDTV glory.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-07-2007 @ 5:28AM
McDave said...
Yes, there is a world outside iTunes and Apple TV is compatible with it. The reality is that the AppleTV hacks do nothing more than the 'convert to AppleTV' option in iTunes and even that isn't required if you're using H.264 video, just drag & drop!
Since AppleTV's launch, H.264 has become ubiquitous as the weapon of choice for HiDef not just in the mainstream broadcast media industry (Satellite & Cable) as Apple knew it would but on the torrent networks as well. As most of the hacks were to play illegal content (XviD etc.) the P2P/torrent community has finally caught up!
Time to get your story up to date, AppleTV's never been better than now.
McD
11-27-2007 @ 9:26PM
Neil Anderson said...
Apple TV looks great. Will get one as soon as I buy a new TV.
11-28-2007 @ 1:06AM
42 said...
"Yes, there is a world outside Apple's iTunes, but if you own an AppleTV product, that's the environment you're locked into (with YouTube thrown in for good measure) without hacking your unit. Same goes for the iPod, as we all know."
this is complete and utter bullshit. do two minutes' of research next time before your next FUDfest, will you? 99% of the content on my ipod and 100% on my AppleTV is NOT from the iTunes store.
I don't know why I even bother with you clowns anymore. pumping WaMu? you have got to be insane. you should be advising readers to sell this POS short or load up on puts.
11-28-2007 @ 6:27AM
Ken said...
You never own an apple product, but talk about the apple product you barely know, man! you are brave.
11-28-2007 @ 11:57AM
Brad Balfour said...
I don't have any problem with Apple TV doing what I need. I bought my Apple TV so that I could share home movies of the kids and photo slideshows with the grandparents on the big screen HDTV. It works wonderfully for that. All my iPhoto and iTunes content are automatically at hand and ready.
I even just imported our 16 year old wedding video VHS tape to my mac and put it in iTunes for the kids to watch. We all got a great kick out of it and the quality was much better than I thought for VHS upconverted twice to 720p.
I already have a TiVo HD and an upconverting DVD player. I don't need Apple TV to be those devices.
11-28-2007 @ 7:43PM
Brent said...
I totally agree. I recently acquired an HDTV. The next thing I wanted was the HD TiVo - not an Apple TV. If I had $300-400 to blow on random technology, then I would get an AppleTV too - after I got a HD DVD/Blue Ray player. I just do not see AppleTV being a great success unless a DVR function is added or I can get/rent movies in HD for a reasonable price.
I would love to see a merger between either Google and TiVo, or Apple and TiVo. That would be a "killer app" (and Google would probably do the best job of making TiVo viable/profitable for broadcasters because they would certainly include an alternative advertising medium)... GoogleAds at the bottom of the screen while you fast forward...