When Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) released the Apple TV years ago and subsequently upgraded the device and pushed it as as the link to the iTunes stores for the living room, consumers and tech enthusiasts were generally favorable and many believed it would be a hit product for Apple.

This hasn't happened -- although the Apple TV continues to sell in decent numbers. The iTunes store has one of the largest libraries of music, movies and TV shows available, but consumers apparently are not that interested in piping that content into their living rooms. That, or the Apple TV is just to expensive at over $200.

Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) fans are what I generally call "fanatics" in every sense of the word. Apple consumers are a breed apart -- they have a love of their PCs and gadgets and defend them with the fervor I would expect from a mother for an infant. What other tech company inspires that kind of following? None in the main spotlight that I can think of.

Apple products have the world's best design and user friendliness from many respects, a result of the company's obsession on the art of the user's experience. Compare that to the attitude of selling a product and you'll see the light. But, there are some things that even Apple fans get miffed about on occasion. The love many Apple fans have about its co-founder and CEO, Steve Jobs, comes from Jobs' obsession on perfection within every Apple product. Jobs can't possibly shake the hand of every Apple fan, can he? That's an unrealistic expectation, but those who have a cult attitude about the CEO, sometimes can't help themselves.

Although Apple, Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL)'s Macworld keynote address by CEO Steve Jobs was followed by millions of eyeballs yesterday, the biggest "wow" product was the announcement of the MacBook Air, the world's thinnest and perhaps most advanced miniature laptop computer. While the MacBook Air stole the show, an announced enhancement to an existing Apple product should have been highlighted more.

Yes, I'm talking about the Apple TV. That product, which has aged nicely but has seen disappointing sales results, will now be able to download movies, music, television shows and other podcasts directly over the Internet -- no PC required. This is a paradigm shift from the Apple TV's recent presence, which limited the capability of such a promising product sharply. The good news: existing Apple TV products will be upgraded soon to allow for the new functionality for free. Also, the product's price has dropped from $300 to $230.

The Apple TV product, as it will be in a few weeks when the software update becomes available, will become arguably the best equipped product to pull entertainment content from the internet directly to a small box that's connected to the living room TV. All products thus far just haven't had the user interaction finesse or the entertainment catalog Apple harbors on its iTunes store, and the steps to get that content from the internet to the television involved too many steps.

You can't get enough of a good thing. Or, can you?

Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) will offer a new box built by LG Electronics, to allow movies to be downloaded over the internet [subscription required] and played on a TV. It sounds a lot like products from Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and several other companies. The new project will also have to compete with cable VOD and DVR functions.

Netflix has a problem, but it may not be one that it can fix. According to The Wall Street Journal "Netflix has about 6,000 movies and television shows available for streaming over the Internet, a small fraction of the more than 90,000 DVDs in its library." Since the internet-based content is probably made up of the most popular shows, the limited selection may not be a problem.

The big hurdle is that video content delivery over the internet has become such a crowded industry that it is difficult to imagine how one company will stand out. Cable VOD is so easy to use that there does not seem to be a compelling reason to turn to an alternative.

It is also not clear if consumers would want yet another box in their homes. Many TVs have a DVD player, a DVR, a cable box and a PC link to the television. The pile is so high that the Netflix box may cause it to fall over.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Look no further for the biggest Money Winner of the year ... why, it's Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) Steve Jobs of course, recently named the number-one most powerful businessperson by Fortune magazine. Take that, Mr. Gates!

In 2007, the man with the scruffy facial hair and the omnipresent black turtleneck celebrated the 30th year of Apple, which was incorporated in 1977, and his tenth year since returning to the firm after a hiatus of nearly ten years. It was a banner year for multiple reasons including, but not limited to:

• The changing of the corporate name from "Apple Computer" to "Apple Inc.," a better reflection on the company's broad-based business.
• The launch of Apple TV, which can play video content downloaded from a computer onto a television. AAPL is expected to be able to unload between 1 million and 1.5 million devices during its first year of release. The 40 GB version currently retails at $299; the 160 GB is $399.
• The wildly successful unveiling of the iPhone, which saw surging demand despite an initial price tag of nearly $600. Time magazine named the device the "Invention of the Year" and sales topped even the most aggressive estimates.
• The debut of Leopard, a new operating system for Mac.

The old Wall Street expression I have heard a million times, mostly in the negative camp is "the company has too many moving parts." Well, the same can be said about Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), but only in the positive camp. So as Apple hit a new 52-week and all-time high of $119, what is going on? Let's look briefly at all the "moving parts."

Yesterday, it was announced that Apple stock will be included in the S&P 100 as of the end of trading today. It's definitely a prestigious move for Apple, and one the company did not have to request. S&P determines who the member companies will be. Many structured portfolios must buy the shares to keep up with the 100 stocks in the index. Typically these funds finish this chore within three days of the announcement. Apple traded 52 million shares on Wednesday, twice its normal amount.

Apple announced that its Apple TV will soon have the capability of offering the ever-popular YouTube internet video site on its Apple TV set-top box. This is another confirmation of the growing and consumer-driven philosophy at Apple. If the consumer wants it and the addressable market is large enough, Apple will offer it and probably dominate.

According to comScore, traffic to Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) website rose sharply from March to April. Unique visitors rose from 27.3 million to 38.8 million, a fairly stunning rise for such a large website. The increase made Apple the 13th most visited website in the U.S.

What the comScore data does not give is any explanation. The news is undoubtedly good for Apple, but why?

The two most visible new products at Apple are the new Apple TV and a promotion for the iPhone.

Anecdotal evidence says that the sales of the Apple TV are off to a slow start. According to Business 2.0: "...Checks with Best Buy reveal that the No. 1 U.S. electronics retailer's own foray into Apple TV sales has turned up a relatively low level of interest from shoppers thus far -- in some cases leaving stores with the majority of their initial allotments. 'We did receive three Apple TVs, and still have the same three,' said a contact within one Best Buy store. 'Not selling too well at our store.'"

That would leave the iPhone as the probable driver of new traffic. And why not? The anticipation of the phone, which is scheduled to go on sale in June, has stirred a tsunami of press attention. Apple's website traffic may be another indication that the product launch create more demand that is expected.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

While pressuring the major labels to drop their use of DRM (digital rights management), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) head Steve Jobs took some time to comment on the rumors about the iTunes Store switching to a subscription-based service. His response was that customers do not seem interested in the subscription model, because they want to own the music they purchase (at least from iTunes). At the same time Jobs told Reuters not to rule out the prospect entirely.

This is certainly good news for Apple, especially considering in the wake of these comments the stocks closed higher than they had been all week last week. The prices closed at less than $94 on Monday, reaching as high as $99.95, before closing .03 lower on Friday. The jump between Jobs's comments on Thursday and Friday was 1.08 as well, but the biggest gain was between Wednesday's closing and Thursday's, with over $3 gained.

These numbers may not be as high as Apple or consumers would like, but they represent strong growth for the company, especially as the summer music season arrives next month and the coming launch of the iPhone in June. If that product and Apple TV are a success, and Jobs can continue to pressure labels to drop DRM, Apple may be in sight of a nice summer.

With talk of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL)'s just-released Apple TV shaking up another entertainment industry (the broadcast TV one), I have to wonder if that can happen in the short term. It's true that Apple's iPod led to a complete redefinition of how consumers "consume" their music -- while the traditional recording industry struggled to change from the format of physical media to digital music files. In standard fashion, Apple helped the music industry see that it's now even time to see music without consumer-limiting digital copy protection -- something that was just announced this morning. Well, last night in London, actually.

Will Apple's Apple TV change television distribution like the iPod changed music distribution? Once content outside the Apple ecosystem is available to be channeled through the small and diminutive Apple TV box, odds are that it may just affect TV habits. As in: consumers buying just the programming they want (à la carte) and even creating content to be shared with the world and their Apple TV boxes, YouTube-style -- but on your normal TV set (well, HDTV), not that small computer monitor that YouTube is usually confined to.

The challenge here is creating the reasons for the consumer to buy the $299 Apple TV when programming is so plentiful already -- but it's also costly. Why pay that $90 cable or satellite bill when you really only consume about 15% of that entertainment? It's money out the window for most, and once consumers realize that, the Apple TV could be the conduit that lets consumers "compete" with the likes of NBC Studios, Viacom, News Corp. and other media giants.

This week on the BloggingStockcast we talk about Nokia Corporation's (NYSE: NOK) new phone, the problem with the new Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Apple TV, Steve Jobs' recent Barron's Magazine's ranking, Blockbuster Inc. (NYSE:BBI) vs Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX), income inequality, Jim Cramer, and Yahoo! Inc.'s (NASDAQ:YHOO) new email developments. And all in three minutes to boot!




Want to be featured on BloggingStockcast? Post a link in the comments section to a video for our consideration. Tell us your favorite stock and why in one brief line and make sure to say "And you're watching the BloggingStockcast!"

The clever folks over at Bernstein Research have figured out that the new Apple set-top box has a problem. The Apple Inc. (NASDAQ :AAPL) iTune store does not have many movies available for download. The count is a paltry 298 films.

Competitors are well ahead in video content. The Bernstein count is 2,407 for the Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) Unbox and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s (NYSE: WMT) Walmart.com has 1,037.

The Apple TV product is a sort of place marker between the MAC and iPod, which have been driving revenue at the company for the last five years, and the iPhone, which comes out in June. While AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) says it has gotten one million calls expressing interest in the iPhone, Apple thinks it can sell 10 million iPhones in the first year after it launches. AT&T is the sole U.S. distributor, so a million calls may not bode well for early sales.

The Apple TV could end up being a bust. Without content, it is hard to see it being a big seller. That could hurt Apple's sales in calendar Q2 2007.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

It looks like consumer electronics retailer Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE:BBY) will be selling the newly released Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AAPL) TV products this week according to the retailer. Apple TV is a small device that allows consumers to get all that audio and video content off their PC or Mac and pipe it directly to (a newer HDTV widescreen) television set.

Several products that can transfer content from the PC to the TV have been available for years. Apple, however, seems to operate under the general rule of simple is better. Apple picked a limited set of functions and implemented the idea as easy as it can without overwhelming normal consumers with features and terribly designed user interfaces.

The $299 Apple TV may yet help the computer and consumer electronics manufacturer conquer the home entertainment business the way it did with the digital music business. At $299, the Apple TV is not cheap, but consumers have been willing to pay for ease-of-use and style as iPod sales have shown.

Best Buy will have about 3,000 Apple TV units in stores waiting for an official release tomorrow (Tuesday) across its 800+ stores. It will be interesting to see if these initial units fly off the shelves like many Apple products do. In retail, half the battle is just getting foot traffic, and the Apple TV should get those feet in the doors. Hopefully, it will be demonstrated properly in Best Buy stores in order to 'wow' consumers.

Via AppleInsider

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) has traded up nicely today. The stock started off the day at $90.24 and after hitting a high earlier in the session of $91.55 the stock is currently (12:30 p.m.) trading up 1.8% to $91.21.

The stock is now 6.7% below its 52-week high of $97.80 that it set back on January 10th. Apple is finally going to be releasing its Apple TV units tomorrow and this leads many to believe that sooner or later the company is going to be selling high-definition movies and TV shows. The technicals on the stock at this time are bearish but improving. S&P gives the stock a very positive 5 STARS (out of 5) strong buy rating and IBD gives the stock a bullish A- 92 score.

Don't trash your DVD players just yet. The box that is destined to take over living rooms everywhere by the end of February is now being pushed back a couple weeks into March. "Wrapping up Apple TV is taking a few weeks longer than we projected, and we now expect to begin shipments mid-March," an Apple spokesperson told Macworld.

One possible explanation for the delay is that Apple has not received approval for the device from the Federal Communications Commission. "A pushout of two to three weeks suggests to me more of an issue with the FCC than with anything else," says analyst Dave Carey of Portelligent.

Tim Beyers from the Motley Fool added that "for as long as Microsoft has been setting -- and missing -- schedules, Apple has been announcing and simultaneously shipping its biggest breakthroughs. Until recently, that is." Mr. Beyeres can't be serious. Apple's two-week delay on a single product pales in comparison to Microsoft's history of delayed product intros.

Arik Hesseldahl of BusinessWeek reports, "Whatever the cause, if it does meet its mid-March deadline and Apple TV is a success, Apple will still be well ahead of the pack."

If Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) keeps growing as fast as it is, it may just overtake its nemesis in Washington State in the next five years. An analyst points out that the iPod, iPhone, iTV and MAC maker has the chance to generate more revenue than Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) given its current growth patterns.

In 2002 Apple grossed just under $6 billion, while in 2006 its revenue was recorded at just under $ 21 billion. Apple's dramatic increase is an "impressive" 250% revenue growth from 2002 to 2006.

Some analysts predict Apple's growth to slow in the next couple months due to cooling iPod sales. However, as everyone knows, the company has many new and exciting products on the near horizon, not the least of which are the iPhone and iTV that should continue to fuel substantial growth. According to Apple Recon, Apple now expects to sell over a million Apple TV devices leading up to the 2007 holiday season, and at least that many again during the Thanksgiving - Christmas period.

The folks in Washington State, who have their own massive launch happening as I write this, better think about bolstering Zune and Vista just to keep up.