“I had some meetings with Canon yesterday about cameras and camcorders, and while chatting with one of their technical guys I realized how Apple could better position its slow-selling Apple TV. Rather than sell it as a device for viewing standard-definition video on high-definition TVs – a substandard experience – Apple should sell it as a beautiful way to view photos and audio slideshows,” Jon Fortt blogs for Business 2.0.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple has not reported Apple TV sales figures. Fortt’s description of the device as “slow-selling” comes with no supporting evidence.
“The realization came to me after the technical specialist told me this is how he uses his Apple TV at home. He offloads his photos onto his Mac upstairs, then goes downstairs to watch them with other people on his high-definition TV,” Fortt writes.
“Suddenly it all made sense. Photos, even high-resolution photos, can move over a wireless network much faster than video can,” Fortt writes.
Full article, in which Fortt writes that Apple would need to release a Windows version of iPhoto, here.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple TV doesn’t stream photos for Macs, either, although Apple is working on adding that ability with future updates according to reports. Currently, photos must be synced from your Mac to the Apple TV hard drive for viewing, which works quite well, albeit with limited slideshow and other customization options. Regardless, Apple TV can be positioned many different ways and there’s no reason why Apple couldn’t tout Apple TV – even as it exists right now – as a “photo station” to one audience and as something else to other targets.
Who said it’s “slow selling””? Compared to what? Windows Media Center? The iPod could be considered “slow selling” when it first came out. Just wait, be patient, no matter how many are selling now, it’s going to pick up fast, hang on.
AppleTV can do more than photo’s so why sell it as a photo station?
Also fat chance on Apple offering any of the iLife software suite to Windows, it’s just NOT going to happen. I’ve seen AppleTV in action and don’t see it as anything substandard about it. Future software updates will make it even better. This idea is crap.
Doesn’t it already do this? Front Row does it. Apple TV doesn’t???
The greatness of Apple products is that you can use them in many ways. The Mac can also run Windows and Linux. The iPod plays media, plus acts as calendar, address book, game player, and external hard drive. It’s all due to great hardware plus great software. The AppleTV is “positioned” as a device to turn any HDTV into a giant wireless iPod for the living room. It’s up to the customer to decide how to use that capability.
I recently bought the Airport Extreme Base Station (the new square one) because my Linksys wired router broke. Instead of making my existing Airport Express redundant, it is now acting as a wireless audio bridge to my living room stereo system in “WDS Remote” mode. The really cool thing is that the Ethernet port on the Airport Express can be used to bridge to other devices. I’ll be trying it with my TiVo DVR soon.
yes, it already does this. All of this talk about sub standard definition video I think must be from people who don’t own one.
Here’s my experience with that:
• AppleTV tv shows that i have bought from the itunes store like Lost, etc look BETTER than most of my regular channels, but of course not quite as good as my high def channels, which I only get 7 so its not a big deal. They still look VERY good on my 57 inch rear projection high def tv.
• Movies that I own that I’ve been ripping with the free software handbrake and watching thru apple tv to me look just as good as the original dvd, the sound may not be as good but to my ears it sounds fine. I had a bunch of people over to watch Borat, about 20 people, and they all commented on the great sound and it was all thru apple tv.
• Works great for listening to music and viewing photos.
nuff Said….
Brown.Recluse
I rec’d mine as a B-Day present and the ability to present our large photo collection via our widescreen TV was the MAIN reason I wanted it. With 6,000+ photos, there is NO better way to share them with family/friends.
Since my wife manages our growing family photo collection on her computer, we keep it synced. For music, I stream from my laptop and all works wonderfully. Movies, well, since we are like most folks, we rent movies and I don’t see this as being much of a reason to really buy it at the moment. However, we have bought a few children’s TV shows and they play just fine.
Obviously, we are going to outstrip the current 40 GB hard drive and I have already looked at upgrade options (we bought it prior to the 160 GB version). Overall, the simplicity and ease of use in sharing our content previously trapped on our computers is unmatched in anything else I have seen.
Did Fortt miss the YouTube announcement? Once that happens (next week?), people will begin to see the AppleTV in a broader perspective.
Granted that until HD downloads arrive, one can keep calling it a substandard experience.
I disagree that the apple tv isn’t selling.
But I do agree that it makes a fantastic photo slideshow viewer.
Apple TV is definitely slow-selling on the international scene – but that is because there is, as yet, no content in iTunes outside the US.
Reposition it in the discount, discontinued bin….
right next to the Cube.
The Apple Tv is like SEX! you have to keep the pistons moving to get to the big Organism (sic)!
Keep using your Apple Tv and before you know it, your entire Macs/Computers contents will be available to you. The Ooos! and Aaaaahs! you will get when that happens!?
When the Apple TV can run iTunes itself and doesn’t rely on another Mac or PC to get its media, I’ll get one. Right now, all my music, videos, and photos are stored on my PowerMac Dual G5. To view that media on my laptop, what has to be running? Right, my G5. Using all 120 watts of power. Can’t let it go to sleep otherwise I can’t get to the data on it.
Give the Apple TV the ability to run iTunes itself. With the price of home-based Network storage coming down, I’d like to store all my multimedia on these devices rather than my Macs. And if the Apple TV could point directly to these devices, I would be first in line to get one.
Any standard def channel looks poor compared to any HD channel. Put an HD movie on AppleTV and it will look fantastic on your HDTV. The source file dictates how it looks.
AppleTV is Apple’s toe in the water to living room entertainment, and it’s been a very good first step. No company has been able to merge computer technology with living room use as yet – so Apple couldn’t follow what other companies did. In fact, Apple specifically did NOT want to do what other companies have done, because none of them have been successful.
Living room dynamics are very diverse, so Apple couldn’t know what would resonate with consumers. Apple is using AppleTV to figure out exactly what consumers want, and then deliver it via software upgrades and new features like YouTube rather than forcing people to buy new hardware.
Very smart, really, because consumers now know that if you buy an AppleTV, you get free upgrades for new services.
Apple TV streams my ripped movie and TV show DVD’s to my HD TV.
TV ‘Rip it, Store it, Stream it to HDTV’.
We don’t need no stinking pictures.
Fortt is a f*cktard. He came to the realization???? Like watching photo slideshows is some undiscovered feature of Applet TV? That’s the reason I bought the thing in the first place. Just so happens I use it for watching movies that I rip with Handbrake more so than watching slideshows now.
For those of you who keep hating on Apple TV it’s obvious that you do not own one. If you owned one you would do nothing but sing its praises. It’s a fantastic device and it is the future of home entertainment. My only fear is that it’s ahead of its time.
Apple should kill AppleTV and put it out of its misery now.
The best replacement for an AppleTV is a 10 foot DVI cable exending from your Mac to your HDTV. Makes for great photo viewing. Want sound, plug in another cable…
AppleTV in its present form is substandard compared to other Apple products! It is “Zune like” in its technological capability.
Admit it MDN. Apple laid a “zune” with this product. Sometimes even SJ screws up.
SOURCE = Steve Jobs
Apple TV is a HOBBY!
If you don’t own one, how can you say it’s useless? You’re just speculating. Sure the AppleTV hardware can do more. That is what will happen over the next year as the software is updated. I use my AppleTV daily. I listen to podcasts and music, watch TV shows, and my ripped movies, and when the relatives are over use it to show pictures. It’s great! All of this streamed from the main computer with the click of a a few buttons on a simple remote. If I want to watch HD or a serious movie with surround I go down to the basement home theater and fire it up. But for daily watching, or a non-action movie, the AppleTV is well worth the price.
> If you don’t own one, how can you say it’s useless?
So one must be an owner in order to comment? Doesn’t make for a compelling defense.
I don’t own one… as the Apple TV doesn’t seem to be very useful. Well, the benefits don’t quite command the price. If it were a DVR/Cable box, I’d rethink my position.
MPC Guy: You can comment, but your comments won’t be compelling.
If the benefits don’t quite command the $299 price of an AppleTV, does the $600 price of the Tivo DVR/Cable Box command?
Oh dear, M and PC Guy is back…
..just stick with Vista OK? You know it suits your lifestyle so much better.
schmluss: does the $600 price of the Tivo DVR/Cable Box command?
Do you own a TIVO that cost $600? Going by your logic of “must own to comment”, you cannot comment if you don’t own one. Fair is fair my friend.
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Macaday: ..just stick with Vista OK? You know it suits your lifestyle so much better.
Uhhh…. I think you have me confused with someone else. I don’t own Vista. I run on a MBP 17″ Core 2.
And what does the operating system of a computer have to do with one’s lifestyle? I don’t quite get your point.
AppleTV is a bomb in it’s present form. There’s a lot of talk about what it might do in the future but in it’s present form it isn’t very useful.
Mac mini. Full control.