“Apple has made great progress with their ‘hobby’ project – Apple TV. It is a compelling device with great access to online content. Despite limited capabilities as an actual television, the device is selling well and retails for a respectable £99 in the UK,” Sam Beckett writes for The Verge.
“The problem facing Apple TV is that it is essentially iTunes on your TV. If your Music, Movies and TV Shows are not purchased from the Apple ecosystem you will be left with a device that can’t stream much content,” Beckett writes. “Of course the Apple TV does have some other great apps too, like Flickr, YouTube, Vimeo and Netflix but these apps are becoming increasingly available on other integrated ‘Smart TVs’. The need for an extra set-top box may be rendered non-existent and so in order to make Apple TV worthwhile, it will need to offer greater capabilities at an equally competitive price point.”
Beckett writes, “Apple currently has 4 main product categories: iPod, iPhone, iPad and Mac. For Apple TV to be classed as 5th category would involve making the device more relevant to the everyday user. I would like to see iTunes on Apple TV relegated to the second most important function on the device and watching live, broadcast television the primary reason for switching on Apple TV.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Sarah” for the heads up.]
