“With Apple holding onto 91% of the market for digital video downloads, one might think that the company’s rapid ascendancy in movie sales would have received more attention by the media,” Daniel Eran Dilger writes for RoughlyDrafted.
Dilger writes, “Instead, reporters have suggested reasons why the figures don’t really matter and analysts are offering their advice on how to ‘fix’ Apple’s digital strategy. Most of the suggestions involve Apple stooping to copy the failure of Microsoft’s DRM-centric rental revocations or the Media Center/Tivo DVR money pit between the rock of cable providers and the hard place of consumers looking for cheap hardware.”
“It’s hard to see why it would make sense for Apple to copy existing products that don’t sell well rather than keeping the Apple TV as what it was intended to do. Part of the reason why decent products like the TiVo aren’t selling is that… there is no market for third party cable set top boxes when the provider is renting out units at cost in the hopes subscribers will blindly pay rent for several years without thinking about it,” Dilger writes. “If Tivo–which has a devoted following and a highly regarded product–is struggling to sell its DVR in competition with those offered by cable and satellite providers, how will Apple jump into that market and dramatically accomplish anything different using Tivo’s same strategy?”
Much more in the full article here.
I don’t understand some of the discussion here. If they don’t substantially improve this thing, what use is it? People don’t know why they need it other than Steve said here’s another box with the beloved logo. Result: people buy it and then what?
Speaking of the beloved logo, I’m setting up a couple of 20in displays that arrived a couple of days ago and was amused to see that there is a piece of tape across the logo on the bottom center aluminum frame. So precious is the thing that it gets its own special tape protection. Apple arrogance expressed in so many ways they can’t all be counted. Wow.
DVR for ATV? Never gonna happen. Ever.
You want HD content to stream, and now you want to record it too? Jeez! Why don’t you just say that you want to set up your own video pirating station?
The studios would never let that happen.
What’s more likely is that Apple TV is simply waiting to get the green light on streaming HD movies/tv as rentals/subscriptions. That is what it is designed to do.
Ever wonder just why Apple hasn’t pulled the trigger on streaming HD content (other than pod-casts)? When it obviously can (ala HD pod-casts). Apple TV is patiently waiting for the rest of the world to catch up with this new media distribution solution.
If you want to see a glimpse of this future, just watch YouTube stream over your Apple TV. THAT is the new video distribution paradigm. YouTube may not be HD yet, but they are systematically converting their whole video collection to H.264, scalable HD. Interesting, no? Buh-bye broadcast TV. . . Hello Apple TV.
Hobby, indeed!
Nimbus. Cha-ching. You hit it right on the nose.
The hard part for Studios is that digital movie rentals will kill DVD sales. DVD Rental stores like Blockbuster won’t be buying DVD’s. It will make more sense for consumers to rent 4 times than buy a DVD. Blu-ray and HD DVDs are going to be in trouble over the next few years as removable/recordable media becomes obsolete.
If Apple generates enough Ad revenue from their downloads and can offer the shows for free, it will be good night.
It will be very interesting to see how Studios either accept or reject this new model.
HECK YEAH! Please apple add the dvr, so I can send this DirecTV piece of $#@! back!
TV is dead. Keep it unsullied.
Apple TV is intended to make the HDTV in the living room into a giant iPod. Adding DVR feature does not fit Apple’s strategy of encouraging the user to get content through iTunes. It is more likely that Apple will announce a video rental scheme for the iTunes Store, which can then be played through the computer, iPod/iPhone, or Apple TV. As a business strategy, adding TiVo-like features and services to Apple TV does not make sense.
Yes, they should! As well as a built-in DVD player (Blue Ray/HD player when they become affordable) and a bigger hard drive.
Give the customer what they want, an EASY way to play ANYTHING whenever they want.
BTW – This is not a portable device. It’s okay if it is a fraction of an inch thicker to give us a more capacity. (and have it run a little cooler)
@The Other Steve
“Give the customer what they want, an EASY way to play ANYTHING whenever they want.”
——————-
Apple TV isn’t designed to play ANYTHING. It is designed to play iTunes content.. And that’s all it will ever do..
The days of network television as we know it and physical media are numbered. The battle between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray will be stillborn before a winner is ever declared.
The future is content on demand.. Steve knows it. Apple TV and the iTunes store are designed to take us there.
Adding DVR to Apple TV??? What a stupid idea!!! It will kill iTunes. People proposing that don’t have common business sense. The key is to add more content to iTunes, movie rentals, casual gaming, and have people download content from their couch… Apple TV hardware doesn’t need a single update.
No DVR. Here’s why (in my opinion):
Apple wants you to stop paying for cable, where random things are playing all the time, and you have to catch them (or plan in advance) and record them along with commercials, etc. Does that sound like Apple? Um, no.
Apple wants you to have total control. Meaning, stop paying for cable and Netflix, and nothing comes in that you don’t ask for.
You want to watch a TV show, you buy it or you buy the season. If they start playing ads in the TV shows, then maybe you don’t pay. Apple wants to be an “On Demand” TV network, via Apple TV. DVR is not “On Demand”.
Or look at it this way, especially if they support ads, why would you want to fiddle with DVR, have another device, etc., when you know you can just download and watch. You’ll be watching the same thing you would have recorded, but in a much more efficient way.
They also want to rent or buy movies, like Pay Per View / Netflix.
DVR doesn’t help people have control. DVR just adds to the already out of control network mess.
One unit, one service, eliminates the need for DVR, Netflix, Cable, Network TV.
Oh, and your new Apple TV / Front row remote will be your iPhone / Touch come Feb.
Apple TV is a joke in this day where most everyone still gets their TV via cable/satellite. The cost for the box is outrageous considering it can’t record (compared to TiVo series2 or TiVo HD prices).
TV shows in the iTunes store are ridiculously overpriced. If a typical cable bill is $100/month, you can watch 50 hours a month from iTunes. What if I watch 30 hours/week? That’d cost me $240/month! Well, probably not considering half the stuff I watch wouldn’t be available on iTunes (CNBC, HGTV, local news, daytime soaps and more).
Who says TiVO isn’t selling? Not as fast as TiVo would like, sure, but they’re in millions more households than AppleTV, which, as far as I’ve heard, has yet to crack one million.
Video on demand may be the future (or it may not), but that future is a LONG way off. The Apple TV device on the market today isn’t gonna bring that future closer to us any faster.
Besides recording, Apple TV ought to support open standards for media sharing — DNLA, which is already supported by PS3 and a number of other wireless-streaming-to-TV devices. And if Apple TV seriously wants you to only buy content from iTunes, then it ought to make the iTunes store available on the TV itself, just like Amazon Unbox is available through TiVo.
@ Jeff J:
“Video on demand may be the future (or it may not), but that future is a LONG way off.”
January is technically the future, but not very long off…
Ok, maybe sometime in 2008, but still not too far.
Should Apple add a DVR to Apple TV? Hell noooo.
DVR to Apple TV, it’s like I have a movie store and want you to buy for my items. And at the same time I would be offering you a way to have them for free. This is just nonsense. I really really really don’t know why people are still thinking od DVR on iTunes
I would purchase an AppleTV right now if it had a DVR.
Just buy a Mac mini for christ sake! The Apple TV is lame.
@ macman:
It sounds like you are stuck in the now. I’m thinking iTunes should offer ad supported TV shows for free which is identical to how they are on TV. You will have the same end result as if you used a DVR, but without the hassle.
If you rent movies and cancel cable, your monthly expense will probably be lower.
They had to introduce Apple TV sans these features… That’s the only way to convince the networks that this is how it should work. The networks can’t envision the future, they actually have to see it.
Next year Apple will be dominating this market. Just like iPod / iTunes took over music.
Slow moves Ellie, slow moves.
You can’t compare Apple TV to Tivo.
As it is now, Apple TV is much more than Tivo ever was. With DVR functionality, it will be even more so.
Simply adding a function to a product, that a competitor already has, does not mean that your product will sell similarly to theirs does now, without your product’s already available features.
Did I write that coherently? I hope so.
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Simply adding a “DVR” function to Apple TV does not make it into TiVo. TiVo is great because of the TiVo service, not the TiVo hardware. Apple would never just add DVR hardware functions without excellent integrated services. Since Apple’s service model is the iTunes Store, not facilitating the recording of broadcast TV, Apple TV will not be getting DVR functions. If you want a DVR, get TiVo. I have it myself and it’s great. I wouldn’t give it up for an Apple TV with or without DVR functions, because TiVo’s service is what I like.
Now, if Apple teamed up with (or bought) TiVo and introduced a new Apple TV that combined TiVo features with an Apple TV, that would be interesting. However, I don’t think such a thing is likely because Apple’s strategy is to encourage customers to use the iTunes Store to obtain content, not record broadcast TV.
“Should Apple add a DVR to Apple TV?”
Yes, If they want to sell more.
Apple. Doesn’t. Think. Like. That.
They don’t give customers what they want. They give them what they didn’t know was possible.
If you want to guess what Apple is up to, the first thing you have to do is forget about conventional thinking.
Most people that read the iPhone rumors last year were picturing an iPod with a slide out keyboard. As if that was all they needed to do to have a hot seller…
As if adding DVR is going to make it fly off the shelves.
As if Apple will leave all the conventional ideas of how networks handle distribution of content alone.
A Stylus, right? No.
The movie studios will not cooperate with Apple and put a large number of movies on itunes. So Apple should just as well put DVR
capabilities into Apple tv. Then we can record movies and put them on our iPods.
Same idea with NBC shows.
That’ll learn ’em
You aren’t looking into the future. You’re looking around at a bunch of devices and methods that already exist.
Rumors point to a new laptop that lacks an optical drive. You are talking about adding an optical drive to Apple TV. S-Video is dead and gone from Macs. Not going to add it to Apple TV.
Not going to add SD card slots, no zip drives, probably not adding anything. Just modifying content delivery methods. They’ve shipped them already with the intention of from then on – controlling it with iTunes.
This is such typical feedback. You’re describing things that already exist that don’t work that well. Apple won’t get involved with a project unless they think the current competing products are completely f*cked, and rethink the whole thing.
I understand Apple’s mantra: that ATV is intended to make that 52-inch HDTV in your living room into a giant iPod.
But the question is what consumers want? To get out of the control by cable/satellite providers and jump into buying contents provided by iTunes store? What’s wrong with one of the functions of ATV being a DVR? I for one like the idea of free over-the-air HDTV programming recorded on my Macbook Pro via EyeTV. If ATV has DVR, then one could get free HDTV programming and skip ads with the DVR feature, or receive cable channels but do not have to pay a monthly DVR fee to cable companies. And of course one can still buy content from iTunes if $2 an episode of TV show appears to be a good idea. This is what I call consumer choice. Though I am a fan of Apple products, but let one manufacturer tell you how to arrange your home entertainment is wrong. And maybe that’s why ATV is not selling.
Try to think of iPod w/o the function of adding songs you acquired through channels other than iTunes. Imagine if that works.
Apple should take a couple $B of that $15B warchest and just buy Tivo and integrate it into all Macs (like FrontRow)
Yes, Apple should add a 750 GB disk to the Apple TV and make one hell of a DVR. And include a Blu-Ray disk. And kill the Mini.
I also like the idea of buying TiVo for the services that Apple could offer as part of the package.
Apple, I’m sure, could make a great product that integrates iTunes for download, over the air broadcast DVR, and BD media. Apple could sell BD media through iTunes.
Also, Apple could sell a special version of the DVR loaded with porn. Now that baby would sell like hot cakes!