“It looks like Apple just got serious about Internet video,” Adriana Lee writes for ReadWrite. “The company has given Apple TV, its streaming-media gadget, some prime digital real estate, clearing out a dedicated section of its online store to highlight the set-top box.”
“This retail positioning is significant, noted 9to5Mac, since it’s the first time the set-top box has gotten the royal treatment alongside Apple’s bigger product lines: the iPhone, iPod, iPad and Mac. Previously, Apple TV was hidden in the iPod section,” Lee writes. “There’s no doubt that, after the Apple earnings call took some of the shine off the iPhone brand this week, the company needs a new hit this year. And there has never been a better time to focus on a TV streaming device than now.”
“But Apple has never been known to care about trends and hype. Or market analysis. What it might care about, however, is consumer sentiment. The company prides itself on building products people absolutely love. The “unapologetically plastic” iPhone 5C wasn’t it. A perception that Apple isn’t an endless source of must-have devices has to hurt,” Lee writes. “Truly opening up Apple TV, making it a distribution outlet for developers, could be the move that makes Apple the master of the living room.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related article:
Next-gen Apple TV may feature integrated 802.11ac AirPort router, built-in TV tuner; focus on gaming – January 29, 2014
“Truly opening up Apple TV”. YES! When that happens, the real game will be on. Apple, time to get out of the way with the AppleTV!
Can you picture what would happen to the Apple stock the moment anyone heard. 3rd party sources can start submitting programs for the AppleTV today!
I love my AppleTVs! That being said, Apple needs to hurry up and bring some new innovation to the device! I find myself using them less and less every month. My TiVos now have a version of Netflix app that is as good looking and functional as the AppleTV version – so there’s no need to switch inputs, audio sources, etc. to use the AppleTV for that function any longer.
Comcast has opened up On Demand to TiVos now as well, so the need to go to the AppleTV for HBO GO is now gone.
Other devices are slowing moving in on AppleTV’s territory. The only advantage they currently hold for me, is the streaming of iTunes content. If my TiVo had an iTunes app, I wouldn’t use my AppleTV ever again.
They need some innovation on the device asap! Some reason to justify even the minimal amount of work required to change TV inputs. At this point, there just isn’t any reason.
Or maybe it’s an acknowledgement of something that we saw in the earnings call. iPod sales are rapidly declining. Removing emphasis on the iPod was inevitable. Apple TV, however, is still selling pretty well and practically leads its retail category.
In the last financial quarter, Apple sold a shade over 6 million iPods and a shade under 5 million Macs.
This is quite an incredible statistic when you think about it. It means the Mac has retained its popularity as a versatile all in one computing machine, a truck if you will, 30 years after its introduction.
Just imagine that a few years ago, iPods were outselling Macs 4:1. The advent of the iPhone has relegated the iPod to the back room now, doing janitorial duties mopping up what’s left of the portable MP3 market.
Even Canon cameras announced lower than expected sales due to the iPhone eating into digital camera sales. The iPhone has truly relegated many product categories to the niches.
Well…Now you are making sense..
The recent loosening of game console regulations in China opens a huge market for Apple to create a platform there. Additionally, the lack of broadband penetration in China would be rendered moot by a fast wireless network, which is now available through China Mobile.
A capable, app-store driven, 64-bit apple TV presents an enormous opportunity.
– Let’s assume between US, Europe and China that Apple could sell 30M of Apple TV devices. (There are about 2.5B people in those three areas, with about 800M to 1B TV’s) – So we’re talking 3 to 4% of TV’s.
– Apple should price a capable appleTV around $199 to $299. Why? Because it would be a more powerful version than what is currently offered today (better processor, more memory)
– So – 30M units x $299 = $10Billion. Good, but not great, the real benefit is if Apple could wrest some of the money customers spend away from the cable companies…
– The average cable bill these days is around $100. Let’s think for a minute about the possibility if Apple could take 25%/$25 of that? Now you’ve got 30M x $25 x 12 Months = $9B (Assuming revenue from all appleTv”s)
– The US cable industry generates approximately $100B per year – how much do you think Apple could gain by a) making it better (with Apps?), b) easier (all key devices in one), and c) more useful (more targeted content without 1000 channels)?
the addition of the tv shopping category on the online store sure makes you wonder if something is up for this product.
We’ll believe it when we see the new hardware that actually lives up to the potential we all know Apple could offer.
Serious? Really? Apple can’t even fix killer features it broke years ago moving from the original ATV to the more recent versions. It looks like they’ve got two interns and a dog allocated to ATV!
Rumors have been that a significant upgrade is coming. We’d all love to see that.