“Apple [has] officially kicked off its Apple TV publicity campaign, providing review hardware to friendly members of the press and enabling selected journalists to publish early reviews. The goal: to try and build enough positive buzz to sustain the newest member of the Apple family despite some mainstream skepticism about its prospects for success.
To provide a bit of balance for all the hype you’re likely to hear over the next several days, we bring you this: a list of the top ten reasons you might not need Apple TV, at least yet,” Jeremy Horwitz writes for iLounge. “Some are obvious, others aren’t, and all are counterpointed to present both sides of the debate. We’ll leave it for you to decide which side you’re on: will you line up for Apple TV, or sit this one out?”
Horwitz’s Top Ten Reasons You Don’t Need Apple TV (Yet):
(10) You have a fifth-generation iPod with video and a $20 bill in your pocket
(9) You don’t have a high-definition TV, or don’t use one as your primary set
(8) You have a large movie collection that isn’t in one of Apple TV’s two supported formats
(7) The iTunes Store doesn’t sell movies or TV shows in your country, or there’s nothing you want to buy
(6) You want to protest Apple’s pricing and bundling policies
(5) Apple TV doesn’t have a DVR – or you already have one
(4) It doesn’t have a DVD or other hi-def disc player
(3) You’re budgeting for another Apple purchase, like a Mac mini
(2) You want to hold out for a version with higher resolution or more hard disk space
(1) You want to wait until the reality distortion field dies down
Horwitz discusses each of the ten points above in greater detail in the full article here.
Related articles:
PC Magazine review gives Apple TV 4 out of 5 stars – March 22, 2007
Best Buy: Apple TV available in all 822 U.S. stores starting Tuesday – March 22, 2007
Analyst: Apple TV could hurt DVD sales and rentals – March 22, 2007
NY Times’ Pogue: ‘Apple TV offers a gracious, elegant, effortless, delightful experience’ – March 21, 2007
Apple TV unboxing photos, interface video – March 21, 2007
Things you might not already know about Apple TV – March 21, 2007
Reuters: Apple makes biggest move yet into living rooms with Apple TV – March 21, 2007
Mossberg hands-on with Apple TV: ‘beautiful design, easy-to-use, classic Apple: simple and elegant’ – March 21, 2007
Apple TV projected to surpass TiVo, Netflix – March 20, 2007
Former Microsoft ‘Enthusiast Evangelist’ Gartenberg looks at impact of Apple TV – March 20, 2007
Apple TV ships – March 20, 2007
Apple shares rise on positive Apple TV analyst comments – March 19, 2007
Analysts: Apple to ride Apple TV + iTunes ‘Trojan horse’ into living room – March 19, 2007
Will Apple TV be even bigger than iPhone? – March 19, 2007
Apple adds 720p Apple TV high-definition export mode to QuickTime – March 19, 2007
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
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
This list is crap. Everyone wants to write an article about the “new apple product” nothing to see here…..
Top 10 reasons you don’t “need” one? Heh heh, I didn’t know that anyone needed one. I thought we were buying them because we want them.
“(1) You want to wait until the reality distortion field dies down”
WTF does that mean? The product specs will be the same next week or next month as they are today. Wait til it ‘dies down’ WTF!
Sounds to me like he just needed a 10th reason and just pulled this outta …
Most of those reasons could be used in respect of any purchase. Unless a person has unlimited disposable income they always have to weigh up the cost of a purchase against what it actually does, how much they want it and so on. It’s nothing unusual.
Not the least bit interested right now. No high-def television nor do I buy anything beyond music from iTunes. I guess I haven’t embraced the digital living room yet.
I’m covered by:
#9, I don’t have a hi-def TV.
#8 I have a huge pr0n collection that isn’t in the prescribed formats. Granted I’ve used QuickTime pro to save my WMVs and AVIs as MOVs so I can bring ’em into iTunes, but if I can use tv to play ’em in my bedroom the tv is kinda useless.
Something I don’t see pepole talking about is that there are companies who charge tens of thousands of dollars to set up this kind of technology … I know because I work on many of them here in NYC.
Apple TV is just the first step.
If you look at Apple Products as a whole. I can now sell an Apple solution to my customers. ( who have a flat panel tv in every room ) They buy a dozen of these boxes at a time.
Instead of a 50,000 dollar set up Apple Just gavethem a solution that is more elegant for 1/20th the cost.
People this has just started. I think you have to ask yourself … does this solution have a place in the market as is today. From someone who makes a living at this … Apple TV is a great product TODAY.
can’t *sigh*
My only issue with Apple TV that keeps me from buying one is the quality of the material available. Why would you want to watch 640×480 video from the iTunes Store on a 720p widescreen HDTV?
If they’re going to require a widescreen HDTV in order to even connect an Apple TV, then they need to have 720p HD material available to watch on it as well.
I’m surprised some tech analyst hasn’t pointed that TV will fail mainly because it doesn’t have Exchange connectivity or PowerPoint compatibility.
So disappointing.
I have a huge beutiful HD set, but I am still trying to think of why I’d want an Apple TV right now. And I buy almost EVERYTHING Apple.
I have a PowerBook that, when I come home, I put on my TV cabinet and plug in the DVI cable to my TV, leaving it shut. That’s all I do. I then use my Apple bluetooth keyboard and bluetooth mighty mouse from my couch if I want to watch anything I can watch on my laptop, see any pictures, listen to any music, or do all the number of things I do on my laptop.
Now, I know a lot of people do not own PowerBooks, but for all those who do, what does AppleTV add to this scenario?
Now, if it had DVR capabilities that’d be an entirely different story, since right now I gave up on Tivo (too expensive for Series 3 and it lacks the ability to port over to my Mac, iPod, etc). I’d love to ditch the Cable Box / HD DVR I am using for something more Apple, but that is some other imaginary product.
The reasons are generic and don’t apply. Of course if the Apple TV doesn’t fit your needs then don’t buy it. Common sense should prevail. His reasons are generic and stupid and really don’t amount to anything.
Like their view on DRM, I think Apple is playing to peoples’ known (though “illegal”) behavior– that is, ripped dvds.
While I don’t agree with all the reasons, I am not going to buy one yet but I am pretty sure that I will have one in my home in 2008. When Apple adds the ability to stream directly off the internet and YouTube, makes it possible to directly buy from iTunes, and makes use of that USB port (Can you say EyeTV?), then it will be huge. All of this can be done in software. With regard to larger hard disks, well that isn’t necessary if you keep Apples digital hub metaphor in mind – you store everything on your computer and wirelessly stream it through the house. Larger formats – needed. A new flat panel HD TV for my bedroom – needed!
They forgot reason #11: Get iPhone first.
*agrees with JBC*
…and because of DVDs, Netflix, Blockbuster and pay-per-view, I don’t see this taking off unless Apple starts renting movies. Why would I want to spend $14.99 on a low-res movie that doesn’t include all the bonus material that a DVD has, and isn’t in Dolby 5.1? I could spend the same $15 on a Netflix or Blockbuster subscription and get 2 DVDs at a time with unlimited rentals throughout the month. I just don’t think Apple TV is ready for prime time.
Surround Sound!
If have a 720p TV, then I probably have at least a 5.1 system. Personally, I have a 7.1 system. Why would I buy movies with 2.1 sound.
I don’t think so.
It would kick ass if every iTunes movie came with DTS. I’d buy one for that.
Dirk – U are so right.
I’m on the “wait for 720p content” bandwagon. If Apple offers HD/720, I’ll get Apple TV.
@R
What?
If Windows brought this thing out every Apple person here would be laughing at it for the low quality and other restrictions it has.
AppleTV is the new Zune?
Anyone who doesn’t agree with this article probably still watches a 13″ B&W TV set and listens to AM radio.
You just paid $3K+ for a 1080p HDTV home theatre system and now Steve wants you to watch blocky video with stereo sound…
His Steveness has totally missed the boat on this one. Apple is supposed to be a technology leader. AppleTV appears to be an attempt to provide “good enough for the common man” technology. Doesn’t this remind you of Dell and M$ marketing strategy – crap for the masses.
Blu-Ray, you don’t need no stinking Blu-Ray. Dolby, you don’t need no stinking Dolby. DVR, you don’t need no stinking DVR. Just buy low quality videos from iTunes. Steve wil be happy.
(11) You are not a complete moron.
What’s on the iTunes video store that I could possibly want?
TV shows? I grab them with my DVR when they’re broadcast and watch them at my leisure. Sure, I could buy old shows, but why buy something when my cable offers me so much to watch for no additional charge?
Movies? I’m not giving up DVDs for downloads. DVDs have special features. DVDs can be loaned to friends. Plus, I buy a lot of anime. Let’s see bilingual downloads with subtitles. Can they even do that?
Sorry, but buying an AppleTV means committing to future purchases, or else there’s no point. I don’t see myself buying enough stuff off the iTunes store for an AppleTV to be worth the purchase price.
Lets see. 10, 9, 8, 5 and 1. Yep.
(Although if it just had regular old A/V outputs I would still be sorely tempted…)