“I speculated last week that Apple may buy Miglia to add DVR capabilities to its Apple TV set-top box,” Carl Howe writes for Blackfriars’ Marketing.
Howe writes, “Yes, the Miglia TVMini HD+ makes a killer add-on to the Apple TV, but today, I realized that there are three more reasons why Apple should be buying the company or at least reselling their TVMini product:”
• Miglia TVMini HD+ is a USB 2.0 device. It would be the perfect device to add HDTV to any iMac and turn it into the best small HDTV on the market.
• Miglia’s add-on HDTV recording solution means that one iMac design could support US, European, and Asian TV standards.
• HDTV content providers would suddenly have huge incentives to sign up with Apple’s iTunes Store.
Howe writes, “Apple TV buyers have just received notices that their boxes are shipping, meaning that they’ll get opportunities to see what works in their USB ports in just a few days.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “LinuxGuy and Mac Prodigal Son” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Apple planning to buy Miglia to add DVR capabilities to iTunes and Apple TV? – March 17, 2007
Miglia debuts TVMAX+ Mac PVR, TV tuner, content provider for iPod, iPhone or Apple TV – March 16, 2007
Piper Jaffray expects 2 million Apple TV units to be sold in 2007 – March 16, 2007
Apple TV ships – March 15, 2007
Solution providers expect Apple TV to be hot seller – March 15, 2007
Apple TV could help kill traditional TV ads – March 14, 2007
Miglia responds to Elgato’s termination of EyeTV license – March 14, 2007
Elgato terminates EyeTV licensing agreement with Miglia – March 12, 2007
Apple TV manufacturing ramp up to begin as early as today – March 12, 2007
Why Apple TV is more important than iPhone – March 12, 2007
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
3rd post?
fifth post?
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Do these people that come up with this lame stuff ever do any actual practical thinking?!?
Why would Apple want Miglia’s DVR capability? Doing that would put the Apple TV in direct competition with the iTunes Store. That makes absolutely no sense whatsover. Get some common sense please…
eleventeenth
I have a MIglia miniHD and use it with my mini and a 23″ ACD. I love it. Can only imagine how cool it would be a 42 incher.
Analysts, journalists and some Mac fans just don’t get it…..
Apple will NEVER and I repeat, NEVER include dvr functionality in a Mac or any other device for one simple reason:
Apple is in the business of SELLING CONTENT, which in turn helps Apple sells hardware devices like iPods and Apple tv’s that will play that content. Including a dvr in any Mac would kill the content distribution business know as the iTunes Store and Apple’s vision of a content on demand future.
Forget about a dvr from Apple, it ain’t gonna happen, NEVER!
@Tre
Apple is in business to sell devices that hold content, all else is just to sell those devices.
If Apple only wanted to sell their own content they would have locked iTunes from importing CD-ROM music, music videos from enhanced CDs or home movies & photos.
I support the possible purchase to make a complete solution in case I want to channel surf. How else am I going to find new TV series I may later want to purchase.
@tre
yes Apple sells content, but they don’t make much money doing it. They sell content to make their hardware more attractive. That’s were the money is.
Any UBS stick tuner adds TVR functionality to a Mac. If Steve thinks he can make a better USB tuner and earn money selling it, he’ll do it in a heart beat.
Nothing is going to work in the USB port until apple says it will. Why do people think that they’ll be able to plug all kinds of USB devices into AppleTV once they get it on Thursday. If you could use those for something now, don’t you think Apple would have advertised it. Future, as in for future use.
– DT
Not if they want it to be a surprise
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Also if Apple buys Miglia, the true meaning of AppleTV would be lost!
Apple is not in the “Business of selling content.” The are only selling content because it is the only way that Macs will have a part in internet distribution. If the record companies would release their music DRM free Apple wouldn’t have to have a music store anymore because Microsoft would not be able to lock them out via PlaysLikeCRAP or what ever they call it these days.
MDN word: “Into”; as in: “Apple is INTO selling hardware, not spending countless millions of dollars trying to keep a foot ahead of hackers and crackers.”
My comments as posted on the orignal article:
“A dvr in a Mac or any other Apple device will NEVER happen.. Apple tv coupled with the iTunes store is a new form of distribution and part of Apples bigger plan to be the premier provider for a content on demand future..
Apples business model is to SELL content through the iTunes store which in turn helps them to sell playback devices like iPods and Apple TV’s. It would make no sense at all for Apple to include dvr functionality in one of its products which will record for free the same content they want you to buy.
People have misconceptions and grandiose visions about what Apple Tv is and/or should be, but one thing is for sure, it will not ever be a recording device and or a dvd player.. The future is content on demand, dvd’s will be extinct as well as broadcast television. This may take years to happen, but Apple is getting us used to the idea of paying for the programming that we want.. It’s what Microsoft, cable companies and most consumers don’t yet understand, but they will soon enough.. Apple tv is just Steve Jobs thinking different….”
@Tre,A good point, but in the interim, never say never.
As many have already said, Tre has it all wrong. Apple sells content only as a means to sell more hardware.
I too have a Miglia Mini HD attached to my 24″ iMac. It is give me incredible HDTV off the air of all Bay Area stations except 1 using a $24 Radio Shack antenna sitting on my balcony rail in Palo Alto. As a test, I recorded a program, saved it in 1080i and put the file in my “movies” folder. Now in Front Row I have the TV show avaiable in Hi Def on my beautiful 24-inch screen.
Now if I had AppleTV, that movie and that front-row-type interface would play on my HDTV downstairs. In other words, AppleTV now has all the intrinsic capability (with Miglia) to be a total solution (music, photos, DVR, movies) with a beautiful interface. The only things it lacks are: the ability to play a DVD directly and the ability to have the Miglia tuner control from Front Row. I hope if Apple doesn’t buy Miglia, they at least provide some means for 3rd party developers to integrate their devices into the Front Row interface. I suspect AppleTV 2.0 will have a BluRay player and an HD tuner.
AppleTV is going to be as big a deal for Apple as the iPod. Until I had front row on my big iMac, I did not appreciate its (and AppleTV’s) potential.
BTW, the Miglia uses the processing horsepower of the iMac, so it would be useless attached directly to AppleTV.
Perhaps Miglia does not want to be bought (but for an exorbitant price), no
one seems to be considering that possibility. Not that any negotiations
have been rumored either.
I think Apple ultimately wants to displace the TV/cable networks and service providers as the way to get content into the home, via the iTunes Store.
So why would Apple want to encourage people to use a DVR to record content off the networks? Apple wants its customers to buy (and own) that content from the iTunes Store. I can see the attraction. If I only watched a few shows regularly, why not just get a season pass for those shows from the iTunes Store and cancel my cable TV service?
There is a strategic reason why Apple TV will not have DVR capability.
The USB port will be for addditional external HD’s (and other goodies) which will contain Video_TS folders that you ripped off of DVD’s to play on your TV without using a DVD. No more freeze frames from scratches and dust. Plus many other things such as a Miglia add on devive and whatever else you can dream up.
OK, maybe they buy Miglia for the hardware, EyeTV for the software, put it in a box with a DVD player, a hard drive and the same footprint as AppleTV, then sell it for $299.95.
So now the combo cost the same as a Mini, does more here, and less there. Would there be a market? As long as I can stream from the orifice, er, office, I might would buy.
However, if I am already hooked up in the office with EyeTV, wouldn’t I be better off getting a Mini w/1 gig RAM? (scratches chin) I can still stream (hoping the Mini will up to the ‘n’th power) shows from iTunes and have a DVR.
How bout I don’t buy a G#dd@amn thing except some Rogaine for all the hair I pulled out, Steve!
Sorry, to further explain, I have an iMac in my HOME office.
TV Mini HD isn’t compatible with paid cable and satellite – that’s gotta kill a large portion of the market. My 2 cents – Apple’s bound to go the iTunes and Internet TV route.
Cable, Satellite and Internet TV. Over the air TV will go the way of the Passenger Pigeon – you thought I was gonna say Dodo bird, didn’t you? Haha, I fooled you. That’s why they call me outside the box or was that outside looking in?
“As many have already said, Tre has it all wrong. Apple sells content only as a means to sell more hardware.”
——————-
Palyman, i never disagreed, in fact that is exactly what I said in each of my posts… Apple sells content to help them sell playback devices like the iPod and Apple tv.. Please re-read my posts.
I think Apple wants to create an Apple TV ecosystem like the one the iPod has — actually, those two ecosystems would have considerable overlap. That is why they should not include their own DVR. Let others create value added peripherals and let the market decide the winners.
Microsoft would try to screw the winners out of their markets, but Apple is smarter than that. By encouraging profitable opportunities in the Apple TV ecosystem, Apple can lock in the controlling position for the home entertainment hardware market. In addition, just think of vendors lining up to pay Apple 10% of their price as they do in the iPod ecosystem for the right to say, “Made for Apple TV.”
I am constantly amazed at how smart SJ and his team are. We do not know the game plan, but I have no doubt that the leadership team has war gamed the likely scenarios and come up with a dynamite business plan. This battle is going to be fun to watch, especially for those of us holding a lot of AAPL.
Can I ask a simple question, can media off of the Apple TV be viewed wirelessly on other PCs/Wireless devices?