Why AppleTV is underestimated and will take off

[Diode]

These people may not know what DiVX is, but many are watching them anyway. Probably more so than H.264. Do people know what CDMA and GSM mean? But mass population carries cell phone anyway.

You sort of proved my point. The mass population doesn't care what video format its , just that it looks good and they can get what they want (content wise). It's only use geeks that care about divx.

This is exactly why your average joe puts mp3's on his ipod while I put apple lossless. He doesn't care how his audio gets on his ipod - just that it's half-way decent sounding. I, on the other hand, use shure e5 headphones and do care.

All I am stressing in my main post is this device it targeted at the average joe who is familiar with itunes / ipods. Apple has sold millions of them so its potentially a huge audience. There are other devices out there that target the small niche groups so why should Apple's?.

 

[Yurtra]

I was just wondering if anybody has brought up the possibility of the USB port on the back of the Apple TV being used as a plug for an iPod, which would then be used as a controller (well, the click wheel at least) for full screen iPod games... (Yes, I know it has been stated that it's only for, "diagnostic" purposes.)

It seems like it could be a possibility, but then again, I'm not the most well-read when it comes to the Apple TV.

 

[nagromme]

I was just wondering if anybody has brought up the possibility of the USB port on the back of the Apple TV being used as a plug for an iPod, which would then be used as a controller (well, the click wheel at least) for full screen iPod games... (Yes, I know it has been stated that it's only for, "diagnostic" purposes.)

It seems like it could be a possibility, but then again, I'm not the most well-read when it comes to the Apple TV.

Interesting thought. Or, it could be for an Apple-branded BT dongle that accompanies a simple wireless controller you buy as an option.

Or, who knows... a controller (wired or wireless) might be in the box We will know that very soon....

(The IR remote would be slow to respond, awkward, and requiring an annoying amount of force for games that are time/speed-dependent like Bejeweled or Tetris. Things like Solitaire could be played with the little remote. Not as nicely as with an iPod wheel or special controller, though.)

 

[Diode]

I was just wondering if anybody has brought up the possibility of the USB port on the back of the Apple TV being used as a plug for an iPod, which would then be used as a controller (well, the click wheel at least) for full screen iPod games... (Yes, I know it has been stated that it's only for, "diagnostic" purposes.)

It seems like it could be a possibility, but then again, I'm not the most well-read when it comes to the Apple TV.

I can not list how many devices came with some sort of "mystery" port that after the product was released , products were released that used it.

While USB is not really a mystery as in term of uses, apple still can use it for anything if they so choose later down the line.

 

[zen]

I have only one reason I'm not buying an Apple TV.

It won't hook up to my TV.

Our house has a huge TV and sound setup, but surprise...it has no component hookups. People on this forum call it outdated, but it's a very nice high quality SDTV and everyone likes using it and there is no reason to buy a new one.

Not one TV in my house has component.

The AppleTV has no composite, which is the stupidest thing I've ever seen; no iTunes content is in HD, so why does it only have HD outputs?

Yep, that's a great point - as I said in another thread, it makes the Apple TV useless in Europe for a lot of people, as component isn't used here, unless you have a VERY expensive set. The equivalent system in Europe is RGB, which is the same quality, but totally incompatible with component.

So very few sets in Europe have component, it means you've got no choice but to go HD. I have a very very VERY nice Loewe SD TV set, but it has RGB, not component. There is no way I can afford to buy an HD set anytime soon.

I would have thought Apple would build a European Apple TV with SCART RGB output.

 

[AENAON]

Hi all, I don't recall posting here before, but let me contribute a bit

My opinion on this is that its going to be a complete flop. We all love macs, and the rest of Apple gadgets, and personally the culture behind them all, but believe me, the ppl who read these posts are not the typical consumer, which is:
1. A windows user
2. A novice user, knowing a bit about windows, word, google, emule, limewire and a couple of games
3. An iPod user
4. A person that has an average amount of mp3s scattered around his hard drive, and trying to figure out what are these exclamation points all over his iTunes library. (oh apple when will u decide that copy to library should be the default action)
5. And most important a person that has little to NONE legally purchased music! itms is not even even an option for most ppl (no itms in the country/no credit card)

Why did windows succeed? Content was widely available for free (as in pirated)
Why mp3 players succeed? Content was widely available for free through tens of p2p programs
Why did broadband became mainstream? Cause kids love to download anything as long its pirated all day long.

AppleTV's content is a no-go area for most users, and I mean allmost all users, except that tiiiny little percentage of ppl who have the cash for the device and even more cash for ITMS.
I guess u can say there is no tv tuner and recorder and dvd player and u r right but the age of all digital, all in the media belong to my hard drive is allready here! I really dont know one single person anymore that buys or rents cds and dvds, seriously!
Apple got it right with extending ur media from ur pc/mac to ur tv in a simple, semi-independent, elegant way. But whhere is the content? Everyone has filled his hard disk with movies nowadays and believe me, none is a quicktime movie.
Unless this becomes a serious media player, and not an itunes extention-toy, this will fail in no time

Let's put this next to airport extreme and isight...

 

[AENAON]

Hi all, I don't recall posting here before, but let me contribute a bit

My opinion on this is that its going to be a complete flop. We all love macs, and the rest of Apple gadgets, and personally the culture behind them all, but believe me, the ppl who read these posts are not the typical consumer, which is:
1. A windows user
2. A novice user, knowing a bit about windows, word, google, emule, limewire and a couple of games
3. An iPod user
4. A person that has an average amount of mp3s scattered around his hard drive, and trying to figure out what are these exclamation points all over his iTunes library. (oh apple when will u decide that copy to library should be the default action)
5. And most important a person that has little to NONE legally purchased music! itms is not even even an option for most ppl (no itms in the country/no credit card)

Why did windows succeed? Content was widely available for free (as in pirated)
Why mp3 players succeed? Content was widely available for free through tens of p2p programs
Why did broadband became mainstream? Cause kids love to download anything as long its pirated all day long.

AppleTV's content is a no-go area for most users, and I mean allmost all users, except that tiiiny little percentage of ppl who have the cash for the device and even more cash for ITMS.
I guess u can say there is no tv tuner and recorder and dvd player and u r right but the age of all digital, all in the media belong to my hard drive is allready here! I really dont know one single person anymore that buys or rents cds and dvds, seriously!
Apple got it right with extending ur media from ur pc/mac to ur tv in a simple, semi-independent, elegant way. But whhere is the content? Everyone has filled his hard disk with movies nowadays and believe me, none is a quicktime movie.
Unless this becomes a serious media player, and not an itunes extention-toy, this will fail in no time

 

[zen]

Let's put this next to airport extreme and isight...

What makes the Airport Extreme a flop? It's a wireless base station, 802.11n, and you can hook up a USB2 hard drive to it to have a networked shared drive.

Sounds good to me. And don't say that 802.11n and networked wireless shared drive are too complex for the average computer user, because they aren't.

iSight? I guess you mean the stand-alone iSight camera? Well, Macs didn't use to come with built-in cameras, so Apple made one you can buy separately. I'm not sure why you'd call this a flop - sure, probably not many were sold, but then that wasn't the point. I'm sure the sales figures for the VGA to DVI adaptor aren't in the millions either, but that's not the intention.

 

[Diode]

Why did windows succeed? Content was widely available for free (as in pirated)

Windows succeeded because Apple stumbled in the 80's and IBM / clones were standing by to take the slack. Then Apple began releasing crappy computers for about a decade before finally being resurected by Steve in the 90's. Harsh but true. No worthy business wants to buy a computer from a company who can't post a profit (Apple 90's). Same thing happened to IBM in the early 90's and they are now finally begining to recover.

AppleTV's content is a no-go area for most users, and I mean allmost all users, except that tiiiny little percentage of ppl who have the cash for the device and even more cash for ITMS.
I guess u can say there is no tv tuner and recorder and dvd player and u r right but the age of all digital, all in the media belong to my hard drive is allready here!

So just about all of the ipod users then? This thing has the same price tag as a video ipod AND moves are not that much more the songs today. Itunes has had record sales for a online store since it was released and I don't see it slowing down.

I really dont know one single person anymore that buys or rents cds and dvds, seriously!

Then how come Netflix is posting record profits and has Wall Street in a buzz?

Apple got it right with extending ur media from ur pc/mac to ur tv in a simple, semi-independent, elegant way. But whhere is the content? Everyone has filled his hard disk with movies nowadays and believe me, none is a quicktime movie.

Only people who download stuff illegaly has content on their pc. Most people (besides internet savy) didn't download MP3's until the ipod came out.

Unless this becomes a serious media player, and not an itunes extention-toy, this will fail in no time

Isn't that what the ipod is? You can't get content to it other then through itunes and you can only play mp3, AAC and apple lossless. Granted you can download tons of mp3's, but as soon as the ipod video was released, content began poping up on torrent sites for the ipod. The same thing will happen with the AppleTV once it hits mainstream.

Let's put this next to airport extreme and isight...

First how can you call a product released one month ago a flop? The isight was targeted at Macs that didn't have built in camera's. Since mac's have had them built in for a while now they are no longer needed. I wouldn't call that a flop.

To be honest, I see you as a teenager who has little to no income and can only get what he needs by begging mom/dad. You are not apple's targeted customer by any standards.

Again I stress this is not the do everything device. Apple is testing the waters to see what kind of market share they will gather with this device. When apple first released the ipod, they only had one version and it was white only. Now you can get them in all shapes, forms and colors. If apple gets the response it is expecting from the AppleTV you will be coming back here to say I was right

 

[Krevnik]

So very few sets in Europe have component, it means you've got no choice but to go HD. I have a very very VERY nice Loewe SD TV set, but it has RGB, not component. There is no way I can afford to buy an HD set anytime soon.

The US doesn't magically use component everywhere. The situation is almost exactly the same between the US and the EU. Component is primarily for HD, HDMI is only for HD... and the Apple TV is listed as only for HD TVs. It saves them from having to support different connection standards in each region, since every region uses the same HD connections.

 

[dan-o-mac]

One day this can mature and become a great product. As it stands right now, it's just alright.

 

[AENAON]

What makes the Airport Extreme a flop? It's a wireless base station, 802.11n, and you can hook up a USB2 hard drive to it to have a networked shared drive.

Sounds good to me. And don't say that 802.11n and networked wireless shared drive are too complex for the average computer user, because they aren't.

iSight? I guess you mean the stand-alone iSight camera? Well, Macs didn't use to come with built-in cameras, so Apple made one you can buy separately. I'm not sure why you'd call this a flop - sure, probably not many were sold, but then that wasn't the point. I'm sure the sales figures for the VGA to DVI adaptor aren't in the millions either, but that's not the intention.

Airport Extreme -> sales
iSight tiny sales before integrading them in the computers, and they stopped them even though the mac pro still has not camera.

and again im not talking about apple loyals, its not that small user base that can make a product successful


Diode: Ur points r valid, but u see this from ur obviously american point of view. Netflix is doing well, and itms as well, but thats only in their own ground, being the ppl that are willing to give money for content. And that is only a very very small part of how ppl enjoy digital media, dont forget that we dont have riaa nazis raiding our houses. And thats all good and growing, but in reality what drives the industry towards media is pirated content. And exactly because this is a device with an ipod-like price point it will lift off if it has response from the broke teenagers as u say, just like the ipod. Serious cinema lovers will go with a quality choice like blue ray. appleTV's target group is clearly the same as the ipod's, but I can see this as another "it was a great product but its closed platform doomed it to oblivion" typically apple story in a few years...

Btw, just 10min ago I had a discussion with a kid that wants me to make him an uber gamig-media center pc. His parents will drop gladly 3k pounds for it, but the guy will never even consider buying a single song online... Maybe sad, but thats the state of the market man

 

[spicyapple]

I'm excited about using the AppleTV as a glorified DVD player so I can use it in my presentations to show off video clips, picture slideshows and such without carrying around a notebook.

It might be great for kiosk-type display booths.

Even from a non-consumer use standpoint, it should do extremely well.

 

[patrick0brien]

I like the fact that I can retire my VCR, CD player, and projector.

Should be here tomorrow...

 

[Diatribe]

I like the fact that I can retire my VCR, CD player, and projector.

Should be here tomorrow...

How exactly is it going to retire your projector?

 

[patrick0brien]

How exactly is it going to retire your projector?

-Diatribe

Glad you asked! It is bizarre huh?

iPhoto baby. For those "And here is our trip to the bahamas. And here is our trip to that big ball of yarn in Nebraska." nights with distant family.

Don't need to whip out the projector, MBP, and take two outlets anymore.

 

[Diatribe]

-Diatribe

Glad you asked! It is bizarre huh?

iPhoto baby. For those "And here is our trip to the bahamas. And here is our trip to that big ball of yarn in Nebraska." nights with distant family.

Don't need to whip out the projector, MBP, and take two outlets anymore.

Ah ok, I thought you had a home theater projector. I can see where you can retire your office projector.

I have a home theater projector that I use for pretty much everything, I don't even have a TV, so for me to buy an tv I'd have to buy a TV first.

 

[patrick0brien]

Ah ok, I thought you had a home theater projector. I can see where you can retire your office projector.

I have a home theater projector that I use for pretty much everything, I don't even have a TV, so for me to buy an tv I'd have to buy a TV first.

-Diatribe

Interesting. I just did this. That projector was my TV until January, sounds very much like your setup.

 

[nickweston]

It's the software, stupid!

Sure, there are other streaming devices out there, but NONE of them use iTunes to stream.
When people critiqued the iPod, not many saw that it was the way the content went into the iPod that made the product. Has anyone seen the Zune software? Geez what a cluster*$&*@.

People in the mainstream are starting to learn what us insiders have known for decades: that nobody on the planet makes technology more intuitive and easy to use as Apple.

Anyway, I'd be really careful about dissing Apple TV, it's the software, stupid....

NW

 

[Diatribe]

-Diatribe

Interesting. I just did this. That projector was my TV until January, sounds very much like your setup.

Yeah it's a fixed setup, projector and 5.1 audio. I just can't see myself watching movies on a TV again. So I don't know yet what I am gonna do. Probably get a small TV just for music and iTMS content.

 

[patrick0brien]

... Zune...what a cluster*$&*@.

-nickweston

Apparently MS agrees with you, ever seen the install screens? I'm thinking of the one with the women in pain...

Yeah it's a fixed setup, projector and 5.1 audio. I just can't see myself watching movies on a TV again. So I don't know yet what I am gonna do. Probably get a small TV just for music and iTMS content.

-Diatribe

That's just eerie. Same setup. I'd been w/o a TV since 2001, hoping to ride the HDTV gap. Decided that it was time in January - that, and I'm a Bears fan

If I may suggest, because I know this is very subjective, the HDTVs out now are pretty much there, may wish to give them a look-see.

I for one am happy to relegate the projector, and it's heat, fan noise and Mercury-vapor bulb to incidental use anymore.

 

[Diatribe]

-nickweston

Apparently MS agrees with you, ever seen the install screens? I'm thinking of the one with the women in pain...



-Diatribe

That's just eerie. Same setup. I'd been w/o a TV since 2001, hoping to ride the HDTV gap. Decided that it was time in January - that, and I'm a Bears fan

If I may suggest, because I know this is very subjective, the HDTVs out now are pretty much there, may wish to give them a look-see.

I for one am happy to relegate the projector, and it's heat, fan noise and Mercury-vapor bulb to incidental use anymore.

Yeah, I was thinking about it. My projector is already HD and makes very little noise. The only disadvantage is that you can't turn it on for a sec to switch the music and then turn it back off... so I don't know. I get around a 85" diagonal, so I am not sure I want to trade that in for some 50-60" TV.

I might get a 40" TV just for the TV and media via tv. At least that is the idea. Besides, the prices for a decent 60" HDTV are crazy compared to what my projector cost.

 

[patrick0brien]

Yeah, I was thinking about it. My projector is already HD and makes very little noise. The only disadvantage is that you can't turn it on for a sec to switch the music and then turn it back off... so I don't know. I get around a 85" diagonal, so I am not sure I want to trade that in for some 50-60" TV.

I might get a 40" TV just for the TV and media via tv. At least that is the idea. Besides, the prices for a decent 60" HDTV are crazy compared to what my projector cost.

-Diatribe

Oh, holy crap. You're projector is HD? Those aren't cheap either. What's the res? You sure TV isn't useful for you?

To be honest, the most use I will get out of mine is the music - which is currently being served by a Mini that's really intended for home security.

 

[Diatribe]

-Diatribe

Oh, holy crap. You're projector is HD? Those aren't cheap either. What's the res? You sure TV isn't useful for you?

To be honest, the most use I will get out of mine is the music - which is currently being served by a Mini that's really intended for home security.

I have a Hitachi PJ-TX300 with a res of 1280 x 720 that I am quite happy with.

The thing I guess, I'd use tv for most would be the music. And being unable to switch the projector on just to switch songs, or whatever, makes it kind of useless without a TV.

That's why I'll probably either get a small TV to run just the music part of it (like 20" or something) or a 40" that I'll use for TV and the music. Movies I think will stay forever on a projector.

All depends on whether Apple releases HD content. With HD content I'd get an tv in a sec and just get the small TV for the music.

 

[patrick0brien]

All depends on whether Apple releases HD content. With HD content I'd get an tv in a sec and just get the small TV for the music.

-Diatribe

I think this is inevitable considering the device is only HD. Heck it's basically a thin client, I see great extensibility - maybe even 1080i some day.

BTW- We like Hitachis