“Apple could unleash Apple TV this week, and this device, not the iPhone, could become the most important Apple product launch since the original iPod,” David Haskin blogs for Computerworld.
Haskin writes, “That’s because the stakes are much, much higher for Apple TV than iPhone. If iPhone succeeds, it will bring lots of revenue into Apple, but it basically is just an iPod with phone capabilities and a unique user interface. Apple TV, however, could open a whole new market for Apple and also has the potential to bring Internet distribution of movies and television into the mainstream.”
“If Apple TV succeeds, it could revolutionize digital media in general the same way iPod revolutionized digital music,” Haskin writes.
Full article here.
Related articles:
Apple TV concept may eventually catch on with consumers – March 12, 2007
Apple CFO talks Apple TV, iPhone, Leopard and retail (link to full transcript) – March 07, 2007
PC Magazine: Why Apple TV matters – February 23, 2007
Bear Stearns: Apple TV and iPhone have changed the Apple story for the better – February 21, 2007
Deutsche Bank: Apple TV could take 30% of set-top box market within a few years – February 21, 2007
How do Apple TV and Elgato’s EyeTV work together? – February 16, 2007
Apple embraces casual gaming; iPhone, Apple TV to join iPod as gaming devices – February 09, 2007
Former GM of Microsoft’s Xbox Live Arcade: Apple TV to become video game console – February 08, 2007
ZDNet’s Graham: Apple TV hits a number of sweet spots, poised to make a big impact – January 25, 2007
Is Apple out to kill cable television? – January 25, 2007
RUMOR: Apple TV sales blowing away Apple’s internal expectations – January 25, 2007
Steve Jobs: Apple TV is the ‘DVD player for the 21st century’ – January 22, 2007
Apple TV beats out iPod, hits top spot on Apple Store sales chart – January 19, 2007
Report: first batch of 100,000 Apple TVs to ship this month – January 11, 2007
Steve Jobs moves to control the living room with Apple TV – January 10, 2007
Analyst Bajarin: Apple’s iPhone and Apple TV are industry game changers – January 09, 2007
Apple premieres Apple TV: movies, TV shows, music & photos on your big screen TV – January 09, 2007
RUMOR: Apple may enter video game market – December 05, 2006
Could Apple become king of game consoles? – September 26, 2006
“…Google and Apple could supplant traditional cable companies as content providers…”
This could be true, but Apple probably would have to launch it’s own private Internet Service Provider business to accomplish this. Right now, a little more than 50% of Comcast’s customers subscribe to digital services (because Comcast Digital is not yet available nationwide) due to their need to upgrade an old infrastructure.
As Comcast does these upgrades, they’ll be adding phone services and perhaps eventually, faster Internet, but they typically only provide 6Mbit/per second service right now and that just is not fast enough for Apple customers to download full-DVD or HD quality movies, which is what people are awaiting.
Believe me, if Comcast Internet customers start dropping Comcast Cable, Comcast simply will raise the price of the Internet service to make up for lost revenues. Already, their strategy is to bundle all their various services together and to force people to pay HIGHER rates for unbundled services…
Connor MacBook:
“The iPhone is more important because it will change the way the world communicates, consumes information AND entertainment.”
I doesn’t change the “way the world communicates, consumes information AND entertainment.”. It changes the device used by those who have one. What an unrealistic assessment.
For those who think that Apple TV won’t do well, it has been rumored that pre-orders exceeded the entire first manufacturing run (100k units), and that Apple has followed up with a second order for 200k units.
I can’t vouch for the authenticity of the information, but judge it for yourselves..
http://applerecon.com/2007/01/24/apple-tv-blowing-away-expectations/#
Steven
In order to stress the AppleTV abilities, he downplays the iPhone.
I don’t think he’s dowplaying it as much as saying “it’s going to be huge, that’s a given”. He won’t bother to rehash the talking points on the iPhone, because, and I think he is right, the real change for Apple in consumer space is going to be spearheaded by the AppleTV. The iPhone will be a massive consumer smash, but the AppleTV is going to rearrange the distribution of digital media in the home even more tightly around Apple and it’s products.
get a grip!
The iPhone’s user interface is a paradigm shift, and the device itself heralds the age of “internet everywhere”. There’s no need to downplay it.
(Sure, other handhelds do the internet, but realistically, how usable are they? And how many music phones are actually better than the iPod itself?)
Connor McB – get a grip. Go to South Korea and see they have been getting internet on their phones for years. And visit Europe, too. Everyone there is more interested in the 3G version of iPhone.
Personally I think the iPhone will do okay, but nothing great.
And the interface…well we will see how fast people can type with no buttons.
And the screen smear factor is going to be great…not to mention scratches.
The phone business changes too quickly, Apple can´t create new products fast enough….too dependent on the Steve to decide everything.
@little niche..”..rumored that pre-orders exceeded the entire first manufacturing run (100k units)”
That is no measure of success of the product, just lots of early adopters that swallowed the kool-aid before the product is even out….or demo-ed very well. There could be lots of disappointed people out there…
“Apple TV” Bitch
Rammer
Personally I think the iPhone will do okay, but nothing great.
That is your opinion, but from the press, it’s obvious that that will not be the case.
And the interface…well we will see how fast people can type with no buttons.</B.
That’s a new one. Is there something inherently superior about fumbling about with a 1/72 scale scale keyboard with .25 centimeter buttons?
<b>And the screen smear factor is going to be great…not to mention scratches.
Yes. Just like how scratches destroyed the consumer appeal of the iPod. Oh wait. it didn’t.
Here is some news for everyone: plastic scratches. Can we move on now?
The phone business changes too quickly, Apple can´t create new products fast enough….too dependent on the Steve to decide everything.
This is the funniest of all.
Please enlighten us. If the phone business changes so quickly, why are most phones throwaway garbage and why did Apple, a company that has never had a phone, shake up the entire industry with heretofore unseen interface and styling?
And please don’t point at garbage like the Prada phone. If anything thinks that the mere fact that the iPhone has a touch screen is all that makes it different, you cannot and will not grasp why everything has changed with respect to PDAs and phones.
Remember when the rumors were flying about Apple maybe buying Tevo? I think maybe if that had happened, we would have gotten a more handy TV with more features that HDTV owners really want and need.
That doesn’t mean that I don’t wish Apple all the success with their TV.
Thanks Rammer, I acknowledged that other handhelds do the internet, but how well do they do it? The iPhone is set to replace my iPod, camera, and even my Mac for most e-mailing and some web surfing. Could you say that of any of the other phones out there?
As for the phone business changing too quickly, the other handset makers have been churning out variations on the same theme for years. That’s why they’re now scrambling to play catch-up with(and why the press, and yes, users are so excited about the iPhone). We should be thankful Apple has shaken up the market with a new concept.
George Wedding
When you subscribe to a cable company, you are counted as one toward paying all the channels that are rebroadcast, which is billed based on subscriber count, and of course, the cable company makes some money off this to pay for infrastructure.
For internet, you are paying for an IP address and bandwidth. VOIP is similiar.
Even if no one uses cable for TV and only for internet, they still have to maintain the plant (cables, buildings, power supplies, etc.) so yes, the prices would go up, minus the cost paid to HBO, MTV, TNT, CNN and so forth.
The iphone will be great, but for the first couple of years it will only be as good as its provider. Enough said.
We are very excited about Apple TV. Finally consumers will have a well designed, non-geek tool that will allow them to view http://www.hungryflix.com movies in the family room. This could be a huge device. But, this is a 1.0 version–can’t wait to see next year’s rev with maybe an optical drive and 200gb HD.
If you are looking to download movies for your iPod or Apple TV please check out hungryflix.com