“Not Steve Jobs’ most important comment during last night’s earnings call, but still interesting: Apple’s chief admits no one has succeeded yet at bridging your living room TV with the Internet — including Apple, whose Apple TV set-top box isn’t flying off store shelves,” Dan Frommer writes for SIlicon Alley Insider.
Jobs: I think the whole category is still a hobby right now. I don’t think anybody has succeeded at it and actually the experimentation has slowed down. A lot of the early companies that were trying things have faded away, so I’d have to say that given the economic conditions, given the venture capital outlooks and stuff, I continue to believe it will be a hobby in 2009.
Frommer writes, “Jobs is right — there’s probably still no pressing, mainstream demand for an Internet TV set-top box, especially if they’re going to have to cost $200-300… But that doesn’t mean there might not eventually be a market for something like the Apple TV — with a lower price tag and a few improvements.”
“We still think the Apple TV would benefit from a DVD drive — people still own/rent a lot of DVDs, and then the Apple TV would be able to replace something in the living room, not just add to the mess of cords. And we think opening the gadget up to video beyond Apple’s iTunes store and YouTube, sites like Hulu, MLB.TV, ABC/NBC/CBS/Fox… would be a smart, harmless move,” Frommer writes.
More in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Sam for the heads up.]
Give me a slot loading dvd/cd drive and the Apple TV will be under our tree. No slot, no buy.
http://www.boxee.tv/
for those that didn’t read the full story
iPod was the most expensive Digital player at its time, and even that, its success is huge and that is because iTunes Store.
I really like the idea of not having to go out to rent a movie or paying late fees, I really like the apple tv idea, but it need to have more movies at a little bit lower price. What would it need to take off? more contents on the iTunes store??
I don’t know, I’ve had the Apple TV since it first came out, and renting a movie via ‘it’, instead of driving to the video store, sure makes a lot of sense for me economically right now, and I’m sure it would mean the same for a few more people if it had the right marketing.
I guess we’re still a few years away from the elimination of physical media – I don’t use it anymore but lots still do, but once that happens, and there are networks that can support the amount of bandwidth required adequately, I’m sure popularity of this kind of device will really take off.
I love it, and in combination with an eyetv dvr it’s been a very satisfying device.
No, no, no. Give me built-in DIVX and AVI support. The XBOX 360 and PS3 have this. Making people hack their Apple TVs to get this functionality is stupid. The iPod took off thanks to the MP3, the Apple TV could take off if it started supporting more video formats. It makes no sense that I can’t play back video files from my camera on Apple TV.
Give me free downloads of TV shows (ads supported) and I am sold, that will allow me to cancel my cable TV and watch the shows whenever I want.
I do love my apple tv, with reservations, I think even I see it as a novelty device, I haven’t fully committed to everyday use yet.
I love watching youtube vids on it, yet it needs a keyboard for searching, typing letter by letter boils my blood.
I love renting movies, but 24 hrs? forget it. And the selection? It needs a netflix-like library with crazy oddities from the past that I can peruse and watch, not just recent movies like “Baby Mama” and “The Crappening” and a smattering of oldies.
Music is flawless, I actually use apple TV via my computer and a wireless hard drive (much faster to use the computer for searching etc).
It’s actually unresponsive a great deal of the time, which puts me off using it. So I guess it’s not ready (still) for prime time, but I like the way Jobs is almost saying “let’s evolve this thing over time and see what happens” I for one am happy to join in.
I understand that most people are being affected by the economic downturn, but that’s actually a positive for an appleTV update.
I’ve been waiting for a cable replacement for years. I’m sick of cox, comcast, time warner, et al. Give me subscription based access to TV shows and add access to hulu, fox, cbs, abs, etc online content and I would be very inclined to cancel my cable bill. This would most likely SAVE me money.
The only problem would be getting live programming such as ESPN, NFL, news, etc.
MDN word: Still. As in still waiting for apple + UVERSE
@cmw We’re lucky, we get 48 hour rentals in Canada, not sure why you don’t, but I agree 24 hours is just too short!
Personally, I enjoy my TV, and am very glad I got it. I have nearly 130 movies on it now (mostly ripped DVD’s from my collection – thanks Handbrake) that I can enjoy anytime I want with the utmost convenience.
I do wish that Apple would issue a software update to allow the USB port to use external drives, so I could easily add a TB more storage capability, but otherwise, I am satisfied.
DVD’s are old-school, and unnecessary, and DIVX and AVI are overrated, they offer NOTHING over m4v in terms of quality, and there is no real logical reason for adding the codecs…
I have the 1st AppleTV that came out and enjoy it for the things I got it for (Pictures, video, music, …). But, it would not take much to turn it into a MacMini DVR with a DVD back up.
With the $25 billion in cash, Apple could buy up a company like TiVo and make MacMini DVR the new unit!
If it can’t play my laserdiscs, no buy…..
If they added hulu I would buy one today. 99% of my tv watching is through hulu.
@cmw
Get an iPod Touch or an iPhone, no more selecting letter by letter. Remote App. The best thing to wed iTunes, Macintosh, AppleTV, iPod Touch and iPhone.
For me, nothing right now beats NetFlix. They have the largest selection of movies, period. Movies cost me around $2 each. I get to keep them as long as I want and watch them as many times as I want. If a movie is available on Blu-Ray, I get it automatically, and the quality is way better than download. And I don’t have to go out. I’m not much of an impulse watcher, so that’s not an issue for me. Until Apple TV can provide me with a similar or better experience, I’ll stick with what I have. Of course that’s just me, and clearly others have different priorities.
They are just lulling their competitors into a false sense of security until they unleash the entire strategy onto the world. I think they are looking at alternative distribution methods to really make this thing take off. Once that’s in place they will be ready to pounce.
“A lot of the early companies that were trying things have faded away,…”
VUDU, Roku Netflix, PS3, XBOX 360, etc. Really, experimentation as stopped? Fading away?
I’d believe, “We’re restricted by the crappy bandwidth in the U.S.” before that. A new product is in the works or it is a hobby because of download speeds.
1. more itunes movie content
2. dvd or blue ray drive
3. more internet video (hulu etc.)
4. advertising!
none of that would hurt apple’s business-model and/or spendings much, would surely accelerate sales.
I agree the Netflix model makes more sense.
Being price conscious, I would need the unit to retail for 150 tops and the movies to be equivalent to the $2 Netflix works out to be.
The other thing is that the AppleTV is not a cool product like the iPod, iPhone, iMac and MacBook. Few people will shell out 230 for the privilage to buy / rent movies from Apple.
@Mac-nugget
the remote app controls my media, but not any other functions like you tube search input which requires a keyboard..or am i wrong? I hope I am and I missed something.
Turn it into a cable box replacement, add video recording and give it an iPod sync dock and it’ll fly off the shelves. That’s what I want in Apple TV.
Apple TV demonstrates the technically possible future of television, now. That’s the key. Getting the licensing worked out has got to be, as Steve says, its own bag of hurt, compared to Blu-ray.
To see HD video streaming to the HDTV screen, is nothing short of seeing the future path of television distribution. Sure, there are details to be worked out, but the writing is on the wall; internet tv is a foregone conclusion.
We, the video consuming public, can only stand to benefit. Stay tuned for more good information.
Anyone know how to get Hulu working outside the USA? Maybe this is its stumbling block to introduction…
Love my Apple TV and with the last software update that allows Music Videos to be played like standard music Tracks it’s even better. The HD TV shows in iTunes are cool too. My biggest complaint is storage space.
Apple needs to make a move to expand the Apple TV’s storage abilities. Activate the USB Port and cut a deal with Seagate or Glyph to add USB drive support with built-in Data redundancy with Time Machine. Right now the Apple TV (160GB HDD) is 90% full and it’s just got Movies, Music Videos & TV shows on it my entire music collection is on an Mac Mini along with the same Movies, Music Videos and TV. While you can stream them stuff from iTunes on the Mini to the Apple TV it’s a bit of a pain and a huge waste of HDD space. If it would all fit on the Apple TV and the Apple TV had a couple of iPod docks and were capable of managing a few iPods plus handle all your media Management then ok.
Apple TV Media Management Server-
Apple TV w/enhanced upscaling for 1080p
2 built-in iPod Docks
1 CD/DVD Player
Integrated simplified Time Machine
USB HDD for Media Storage Expansion and/or Time Machine back-ups (Plug-in 2 1TB HDD and expand your Apple TV storage space plus the you could have the ability to activate Time Machine to back up your media & playlist files to the second drive.)
@cmw – If you have the Remote app running on your iPhone/iPod touch and liked to the Apple TV, and you select YouTube search on your Apple TV with its small white remote, a keyboard will immediately pop up on the screen of the iPhone/iPod touch.