∞ Apple TV: A first step in a long-term strategy

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The new Apple TV is an impressive device that is much smaller than its predecessor and only streams content, instead of playing from an internal hard drive. Whether you like the new device or not, it’s important to remember that this is the first step in Apple’s television strategy.

Steve Jobs has been very clear in the past, saying that a lot has to change in the television market before Apple would consider it anything more than a hobby. One of those changes happened yesterday.

A $99 price point on the Apple TV will give Apple exactly what it needs — a lot of users.

Look at it like this — Apple is able to negotiate with the music studios because it comes from a position of power. The iPod is the top selling device in the world, the iPhone is selling like hotcakes and everyone wants to be part of it.

That’s not the case with the Apple TV. I’m sure it sells quite well, but it doesn’t have the mass market appeal that the iPod, iPhone, and iPad have. That doesn’t give Apple much bargaining power when they go to the studios and want to offer things like rentals.

If Apple can get the Apple TV out to the mainstream market and make it as popular for the home entertainment system as the iPod is for music fans, its position will strengthen.

In order for Apple to offer services like the long rumored subscription model for television shows, they have to show the networks that they have more than a hobby device. The networks are not going to want to do anything to upset the status quo, unless there is something big on the other side for them.

Apple TV can easily be that big thing, but it is going to take some time. Typically, when Apple sets it mind to making something a hit and they have a target to achieve, they make it work. I have no reason to think this will be any different.


  • BoredInOttawa

    well, I must honestly say that I see no compelling reason to get the new device.
    The most useful thing I find about the Apple TV that I currently have is the
    available storage. I don’t need to keep an extra (power consuming)
    device (computer) online to have my content available at my stereo and TV.

    I REALLY don’t understand the “people don’t want to manage their content”
    statement from the keynote about the Apple TV…

    AND: given that I live in Canada, the land of Bell and Rogers capping the heck out of internet bandwidth, and policing, and traffic shaping at really annoying levels,
    the thought of being utterly dependent on how well the stream happens to be
    working at the moment I want to watch my movie/listen to music, really is concerning.

    How busy are the streaming servers going to be on Friday nights? As it is right now,
    purchasing a rental from the Apple store requires pre-planning on weekends,
    the difference in download speed from Monday night to Friday night is substantial.

  • MacRules

    BoredInOttowa I also have an Apple TV and I love it! I don’t use the 120GB onboard storage at all though. I stream movies I have ripped from my iTunes on my iMac. I have boxes full of DVD cases in storage and over 600 movies on my hard drives. I don’t mind managing the content on my mac but syncing could be a pain and content management was not optimal between the Apple TV and my Mac. I really enjoy the interface and simplicity of sharing my audio and video files from iTunes to the Apple TV. I’m not sure I’m going to want to rent over purchase but I am sure there will be times I will use it that way. I have purchased some TV shows I missed on cable and have no intention to watch it again so I think rentals may be a big addition. Kind of like the Apple TV itself, it may be the best feature you didn’t know you wanted. The Apple TV is the greatest device I didn’t know I couldn’t live without. While I was a little skeptical of the rentals at first I am slowly convincing myself it’s going to be another step in the right direction. I’m just glad that they are starting to put some effort into getting this device up to Apple’s and apple fan’s expected abilities and standards. It can’t be easy being innovative in every single endeavor but somehow Apple manages.

    PS. Like I tell my friends that don’t have iPhones and brag about their current iteration of non-apple smart phone… “Without the iPhone on the market you wouldn’t even have the choice, thanks to apple everyone else had to attempt to catch up and everything else is second best.”

  • JD

    I too live in Canada and the days of unlimited bandwidth left us some time ago, and it’s heading towards our American cousins, to those who still have this luxury!

    I also don’t understand the statement that synching media to an ATV is difficult. I have no problem and in fact I have 2 of the devices managed on 1 Mac and I have no issues with deciding which different shows, pictures, movies etc I want on each one. I don’t mind the idea of renting a show or movie for certain titles, but by in large, I purchase my content for multiple viewing.

    Now, let’s say I buy a show @ $1.99 and someone else rents it at $0.99. We both have to download the show at the same file size. However, here’s the rub, if you want to watch the show again some day, not only do you now pay another $0.99 which equals what I bought the show for, but you, once again, must download the show and use twice as much bandwidth as I did to get the episode/movie again! Bandwidth issues both in performance and usage will become more & more of an issue as times progresses.

    I for one don’t have any problem in managing my media content nor any other of my digital assets. With the price of storage as low as it is in both internal & eternal drives, frankly there is no longer any excuse about having the capability of storing & organizing your data/content!

    I love my ATV’s and will not be a candidate for the new ones, although Apple is doing the right thing as they are listening to what the majority of folks want, and the rental model is the way things are going. So as long as content is available to purchase as well as rent, I for one see no problems.

    I will probably buy another of my model of ATV and store it away to replace any of the 2 that might fail someday. I can see the day when I go to the new device when I can set up a dedicated server to act as my media & data centre for all my devices in the home. Someday, but not now.

    For now, my Apple TV’s serve their purpose beautifully and love ‘em!

  • Dot

    I’m one of the people who don’t want to purchase content which is why I may be buying the new Apple TV. My experience has been that once I watch a tv show or movie, I very rarely watch it again.

    What I am interested in is replacing my cable company. That is a huge whopping bill each month for a whole lot of channels I don’t watch. I wish I could buy only the channels, or shows, I do watch. If Apple TV (or other things like it) become popular enough maybe the cable companies will give us more flexibility in order to compete.

  • Cristian Rodriguez

    I think Apple will ultimately allow for people to have access to there media from the cloud, then a storage device seems useless. This could very well be the first device to move to that realm. Imagine having access to all your purchased media with out having to store it your self.

  • Gary

    Many of the current respondents here are missing the “streaming” point here, over WiFi, from another computer in your home is still streaming. But I can also totally appreciate the bandwidth problem when everyone decides to rent the same movie on Friday night from Netflix. I still think the new Apple TV is a good idea though, as I have several friends who already have a Netflix account, for another $99.00, they can just watch the shows on their big screen TVs instead of on their laptop or desktop systems. I can see a lot of people buying it for $99.00 just to check it out.

  • Craig

    Silly question from a not-very computer literate iMac user. All I want is to play movies and stuff that is currently on my iMac on my TV. Storing all that stuff outside my iMac would be a bonus. It takes up a lot of space.

    The new Apple TV doesn’t store, only stream? I have to buy a wireless hub to stream from my iMac?

    What’s the easiest and ideally not-very-expensive way to just take the movies and m-pegs from my iMac and play them on my TV?

    Thanks,
    Craig