The British like Macs

I backup my Dvd collection and import it into iTunes (on an external HD), I also aquire TV Shows off the internet and would like to watch all of these on my 42" plasma, which is exactly why I have bought an AppleTV.

It's also nice to have your complete music collection in your living room!

Anecdotally without sales figures a visit to an applestore in the UK on a Saturday afternoon is enlightening. Ignoring the people using it as a web cafe-who are also valuable because they help to reinforce the brand, there are many people visiting who are new to computers -"we've come to see about the macs"- a recent comment I heard. Plus the kids area full of kids using the educational games. The ipod area full of teenagers and not so teenagers trying out the latest models. I compare this to another retail store where you had to ask permission to unlock a machine-not connected to the internet, applications didn't work under vista not interactive or friendly. I can see where the retail experience has helped here in the UK to spread the Mac experience!

I've seen a lot of people switch to a mac here in the UK, its quite surprising. The general "mood" is that they're much more of an option than they were even a couple of years back.

EyeTV is the best way to get content on appleTV without going through the iTS. It even has an auto-export for iPod which, following recording will re-encode and send to your iTunes library. Those files will play on appleTV.

This isn't the first time that the Republic is shown with UK is it. The Beeb show the whole of the island on their weather maps. It looks clumsy if it is taken off even though in this case the northern coastline of Europe has been removed. It is a MAP not a graphic to show UK!
Should the Isle of Man be included?
Anyway Apple support is dealt with from Cork so maybe it is appropriate to leave it in.

@ Conal Your argument is ridiculous.

"If I someone says they are American, what do you assume? You assume that they are from the U.S.. You don't think they might be Canadian because Canada is part of the North American continent. Do you? That was my whole point. American means U.S. for most people so Canadians identify themselves as Canadians and could take offence at being called American (even though geographically they are) You're just showing your pedantry yourself to even take me up on that."

American means US for everybody. North America is the continent. Somebody who calls themselves American is from the US. Simple as. You're mixing up your terms - on purpose? - in an attempt to prove an extremely lame point. The Republic of Ireland (2/3 of the island of Ireland) is part of Europe... Northern Ireland is part of the UK, the countries of which (NI, England, Wales and Scotland) are part of Europe.

You can attempt to compare Canada and the Republic are flimsy to say the least. And quite how you can call me a pedant when I'm merely relaying facts is beyond me.

"The point I was defending was that The Republic of Ireland is in that picture and the whole picture is referred to as the UK. This is incorrect. It is geograpically misleading and politically incorrect."

As someone points out below - would you prefer Ireland was airbrushed out? And more at issue is the confusion over UK and British - which are not the same thing.

Wild stab in the dark - you're not from the UK? Over here we know the differences, understand them and live with this knowledge. To outsiders it can seem confusing - as you're proven.

"The Graphic Argument"

Don't get worked up about it, it's easily done you normally use an image that shows the two different countries in separate colours and label them simply as the UK and Ireland (don't airbrush the Ireland out), don't label the insignificant parts such as the Cities, Regions or Historic Nations.

You are making a big thing out of a slight misunderstanding, so just give them advice instead of jumping down their throats. It's not like it was intentional.

I'm in UK and am one of the growing number of mac switchers in this country... my PC is in the bin & I'm writing this on my shiny new iMac

I'd speculate that if Apple is doing well it's because the United Kingdom is a relatively rich society. AFAIK, its economy is the fourth largest in the world on some estimates.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_United_Kingdom

As Roughly Drafted recently noted, Apple total market share may not be that large (which is why commentators like Paul Thurrott keep harping on about total market share) but Apple has a sizable chunk of the high end of the home-users market.

http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/RDM.Tech.Q1.07/9EF16A95-278E-40ED-9E00-FBEBD75207FB.html

They're big in Japan, too, aren't they? (And doubtless in the Republic of Ireland, which is also doing OK, AFAIK.) Apple products are good value in terms of what you get for the money but they aren't cheap.

Haven't a clue about AppleTV sales specifically.

I was planning on getting this as like the first comment it's fairly annoying hooking up your Mac to your TV via DVI, VGA or whatever and the Sound.

I also watch alot of Movies and TV Shows downloaded from the Internet, mainly because there is no decent VOD service here. So I can either miss the shows or watch them on my Mac, so the Apple TV will be a great edition to my setup.