“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
(12) You’re not a rich, liberal San Franciscan hippie with an endless amount of expendable cash to spend on useless products.
RMN
@TM – “…”good enough for the common man”
May I modify that to “good enough for the Windows man or woman”
What’s need got to do with it?!?!?!
It’s just F&&#xki;ng cool!
If you buy a lot of iTunes video content, then a iTV makes sense
I’ll buy one when I can use my Mac on my 100″ HDTV.
Guys, it plays other things besides movies. You keep harping on the problems with low movie quality and such…playing movies is only one of the features.
I have over 10 thousand photos in iPhoto and I would love to watch them on my TV without having to connect my ipod or my computer to my TV set. I also have tons of music on my mac but I want to listen to that music through my home stereo system…not through my crappy computer speaker. Yes I could buy some nice external speakers but I already have speakers connected to my entertainment system. Talk about buying something I don’t need…I don’t need more speakers…I don’t need an ipod dock for my tv, I don’t need a laptop or a mac mini to connect to my tv, I don’t want to be forced to place my computer right next to my entertainment center, I don’t want to run long cables, etc.
I have been searching for a solution for a long time and there are solutions out there but they are way out of my budget and not nearly as elegant as AppleTV.
So maybe AppleTV is not for you, but don’t downplay the functionality and benefits this device offers millions of people.
A good, fun article.
Peace.
http://www.kaleidescape.com/
this is the solution people already buy like crazy
Apple once again takes what the super rich already have had for years and brings it to the rest of us
go Apple
OK, I’m on there at numbers 9, 5, and I guess a little of 1.
No wonder Apple TV seems to be such a snore for me.
The Apple TV will never have a DVR, as it would put it in direct competition with the iTunes Store, so everyone may as well get over that one right now.
The main hangup with the Apple TV isn’t the lack of a DVR, it’s the lack of any available HD content. Why sell a device designed to work only with widescreen HDTVs when none of the content available for it is actually in HD?? I wish Apple would answer that one simple question.
“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.”
Yes. very accurate analysis. Those who don’t see that are just to dumb to realize that they’re part of those masses being targeted.
“Why sell a device designed to work only with widescreen HDTVs when none of the content available for it is actually in HD?? I wish Apple would answer that one simple question.”
Answer: Rabid Mac fans will buy anything and defend it to the death, so even if it’s crap it’s still a good thing to ship it and make those sales while you work on a real living room product with Blu-ray and a DVR for the thinking buyers.
> (9) You don’t have a high-definition TV, or don’t use one as your primary set
That’s about the only reason that makes sense. The others (except maybe #7) are worthless.
But I think Apple TV will have a secondary effect of spurring consumers to replace their old non-HD TVs. Any other company would have made the product compatible with as many older TVs as possible. Apple says, we want people to have HD TVs and use our product with it. I think that’s bold and shows leadership.
I just don’t get it. Does an Apple TV take up that much less space than my MacBook Pro?
The Apple Vending Machine shouldn’t be too far off now…
http://www.ipodconverter.com
Reason 1: I don’t have a TV.
Reason 2: I don’t have a TV.
Reason 3: I don’t have a TV.
That’s all the reasons I need.
250gig external plugged into old out of date but still plays video iBook. Plugged into TV. VLC plays all manner of formats, so no compatability/format issues. Plays music (the TVs hooked up to a stero). Griffin Air Click remote. Simple. Ok not as elegant, or as convenient to use, and no it doesnt stream from iTunes but I’m in Australia and I doubt that will happen here for a while anyway.
Bottom line you just want to display video on the TV right? You dont NEED Apple TV to do it. WANT yes. There’s a difference.
Why dosn’t Apple actually make an actual TV. i.e. 17,21,30″ display with a TV tuner in it. Slot loading dvd player/recorder in th side. 400 – 500gig on board (or cram this Apple TV box thing into it). Actualy might have to be an iMac form factor to cram it all in. Just make the iMAc without the extra white bit down the bottom. Shorten it so its the same thickness white edge all the way round. Get what I mean. So it’s not actually a computer, Its a TV PVR. But plug a Mac mini in and youv’e got it all.