Five reasons why Apple TV is still just a hobby
I'm pretty far from being a Luddite, but I've never understood the point of the Apple TV. Even after its update to the newest version, I still don't get why this product exists. Erica posted the reasons she and other members of the TUAW team feel the Apple TV is every bit as revolutionary as any other Apple product, but I disagree. There are many things keeping the Apple TV from being an appealing product, not only for me, but for millions of other potential customers, too. I've outlined five of those reasons below.
1. Apple TV is a half-trick pony. I'd say it's a one-trick pony, but that's what the old Apple TV was. With its new rental-only model, the Apple TV is now little more than an AirPort Express with video streaming. For many users, that may be exactly what they've been looking for. If you've got an iMac on the far side of the house from the big-screen HDTV in your living room, Apple TV may be a good solution for you. If you've got a MacBook, though, a US$99 Apple TV doesn't do anything that a $5 VGA cable won't do just as well. Sure, there's the tantalizing possibility that Apple TV may run apps someday, but it's only a possibility. I don't know about you, but I base my purchasing decisions on what a product can do today, out of the box.
Click "read more" to view the other four reasons I think Apple TV is still just a hobby.
2. Apple TV has limited international appeal. Here's the list of countries that support movie rentals: United States, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, and Ireland. Here's the list of countries where Netflix streaming works: US and Canada. Here's the list of countries where you can rent TV shows: United States.
If you're outside of that relative handful of countries, there's pretty much no point in buying an Apple TV. That includes most of Europe, all of Latin America, and all of Africa and Asia. Millions upon millions of potential customers live in those countries, but since you can't rent movies or TV shows there, an Apple TV is all but worthless for them.
3. Apple TV has limited codec support. The list of codecs Apple TV supports is identical to what the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch supports, which pretty much boils down to H.264, MPEG-4, and Motion JPEG. Forget about AVI, MKV, or any of dozens of other video formats -- unless you jailbreak. You can also forget about 1080p playback, because Apple TV is capped at 720p. Granted, Apple TV will play absolutely anything the iTunes Store puts out, but all of the iTunes Store's video files are encumbered with DRM. Stack the Apple TV's lack of a disc drive and limited codec support against something like a PS3, and the Apple TV looks like a piece of junk by comparison. Speaking of which...
4. Apple TV has limited appeal in households with modern gaming systems. My PS3 will play virtually any video file I throw at it, and it also plays DVDs, Blu-rays, PlayStation games, PlayStation 2 games, PlayStation 3 games, games downloaded from the PlayStation Online store... the list goes on. My PlayStation 3 also has 60GB of built-in storage compared to the Apple TV's 8GB, and it also accepts external hard drives -- like the 1TB drive that I have plugged into one of its USB ports. I don't own an Xbox 360, but the situation is virtually the same for owners of that system. Apple TV offers almost nothing that these other systems don't, and the percentage of households with HDTVs (remember, the new Apple TV only connects via HDMI) but no PS3, Xbox 360, or Home Theater PC has to be quite small.
5. Apple TV has almost no backing from Big Content. TV networks have been understandably reluctant to give up as much power to Apple's iTunes Store as the big music labels gave Apple in the mid-2000s, and the result is a confusing landscape for customers. Movies can be purchased or rented from almost any studio, but TV show rentals are only available from the small number of networks that have signed on with Apple. The situation is similar to 2005's launch of movie purchases on the iTunes Store, but the difference now is that TV networks' relationships with Apple have soured, mostly because the networks want more money than Apple is willing to give them; Amazon and Google TV both represent alternatives to the iTunes Store that many TV networks may find attractive. The result for any potential Apple TV owners is a fragmented, confusing landscape where there's no easy way to tell whether their favorite shows will be available to rent or not.
Out of all the features that the new Apple TV has, the only one that I've found even remotely appealing is AirPlay. The ability to stream video content to and from my iPhone 4 sounds neat, but personally, I've got other ways to do the same thing with my existing devices. I've got a house full of Apple's devices, but the Apple TV has no place or purpose in my home theater setup. The strong initial sales numbers for Apple TV certainly show that it has greater appeal than the older model, but for now, the device is very clearly still just a hobby.
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I'm pretty far from being a Luddite, but I've never understood the point of the Apple TV. Even after its update to the newest version, I...
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There is a full video tutorial on how to jailbreak the New Apple TV 2G here:
http://iphoneblogr.com/2010/11/how-to-jailbreak-apple-tv-2g-using-the-pwnage-tool-on-ios-4-1-video-tutorial/
And a video tutorial on how to install NitoTV here:
http://iphoneblogr.com/2010/10/how-to-install-nitotv-on-your-jailbroken-apple-tv-2g/
And how to install Plex on the Apple TV 2G here:
http://iphoneblogr.com/2010/11/how-to-install-plex-onto-apple-tv-2g-play-almost-any-video-file-type-video-tutorial/
I got a Roku about a year ago and love it!!! it was $99 for the wireless model.
It has increasing amounts of "channels" being added to the service.
I can watch the evening news at 6pm from any network. I can rent movies from amazon video and netflix allows me to watch movies and shows from my "watch instantly" que. I can also subscribe to baseball, UFC and others. Vimeo has its content available.
the roku unit is wireless and has a 780p resolution, (recently the new product offers 1080p for $79!!)
I was thinking of getting the apple tv since it is very similar to what I have, but I gotta tell ya, Roku currently has Apple beat in this market.
we have been without cable or sat tv for over a year now, and dont miss it at all.
Ok hold on now we all agree, it streams and you might be able to buy some stuff depending on where you are. That is exactly what the writer of the article is saying. I agree with him might be handy but very hobbyish if you see what you can do with 3rd party stuff (PS etc.) were it not that they have questionable speed, quality and interfaces. I opt for a Mini running plex. Apple used to be open everything but the amount of codecs they support is dissapointing.
October 10 2010 at 3:01 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyMissing the point. This article has missed the point and the future of the Apple TV altogether. It's not about what we can do now, it's about what we need and want to do in the future. As an example, I just came from a conference, at the conference every presenter had PowerPoint / keynote slideshow to present. In order to do this they either had to hookup their laptop or copy their slideshows to an already supplied computer. If there was a device like the Apple TV (once airplay really arrives) then none of that would be necessary. They would just come in, output their display to the Apple TV and be done. Two seconds, no special cables, no muss, no fuss, no hassle. Same thing goes for the connection of the laptop to the TV to stream movies. I'm not saying it can't be done now, I'm saying look how much easier it would be with an Apple TV and a wireless hookup. Wanna show the parents a video you shot of the grandkids on your iPhone? Just connect and go. Stream a movie from your iPad to keep those same grandkids busy while you talk? Just connect and go. Once this type of technology becomes prevalent, you'll wonder how you ever lived without it... Probably like you wonder about your iPod right now....
October 09 2010 at 8:09 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyWhen the rumours started about the $100 Apple TV, I decided to pick up the newest Mac mini instead. I got a returned unit for $500, did the daisy chain memory upgrade (my 4GB MBP went to 8GB, pushing the 2GB Mac mini up to 4GB) and now I have a vastly superior device that is still in an entertainment center-friendly form factor.
The rental/streaming model would be fine if it had content backing and prices were lower. I can watch endless HD streams of TV shows with my Netflix account in my $15/month. $15/month would buy me 15 episodes via Apple TV.
I live in the UK, and my biggest problem, and the reason why I won't be investing in an AppleTV, is that it doesn't support things like the BBC iPlayer or 4oD. They're services much like Hulu, where you can "catch up" on TV from about a week past. All the major TV providers (Sky, Virigin, etc.) all offer access to these services from our normal TV boxes, so why should I invest in the AppleTV, which doesn't even offer these services. As much as I like Apple, sometimes people outside of the USA really do get the short end of the stick...
October 09 2010 at 12:38 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyPoint #4 is typical of the groupthink that goes on in the tech journalism field and is not borne out by actual sales figures. At the start of 2010, sales of the three major consoles were roughly 60 million units, with the Wii (an SD device with no significant media capabilities) accounting for over half of those sales. HDTV sales over that time period have been steadily ticking up from 20-30 million units sold in 2007, with significant increases expected over the 2010 sales year. This means that there are somewhere between 100-150 million HDTV sets in US living rooms at the moment, leaving well over half of those sets without HD gaming consoles. The home theater PC market is virtually nonexistent outside of the serious gaming and tech enthusiast scenes. Blu-ray player sales, while finally gaining some traction in 2010, have been so disappointing to the industry that many manufacturers are essentially giving away players with many 40" and larger HDTV sets.
Despite Apple making no meaningful marketing push on its behalf, the new AppleTV is selling extremely well, with most Apple retail stores unable to maintain stocks and 1-2 week shipping delays on current orders through the online store. Whereas other solutions exist, the AppleTV is positioned to be the first truly "plug and play" media library streaming device for the average consumer (not tech enthusiast). In addition, living room rental via iTunes and Netflix streaming are compelling features, which put the AppleTV on solid footing with Roku, Blu-ray and other set-top boxes. The brand recognition of Apple only increases the potential for widespread consumer adoption.
I've looking for a device that can stream and play media (ALAC/FLAC audio, DVD, Blu-ray) that resides on my file server (Solaris x86 RAIDZ2 box serving NFS/Samba/DAAP. That the new Apple TV can't, and in fact seems explicitly designed not to, makes it dead to me.
October 09 2010 at 8:27 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyWell, I have been thinking about this for a while and even though I have a PS3, that thing is a power hog, as is my Mac Pro running PS3 Media Server.
The Apple TV has a 6-Watt power supply. Together with a notebook that is only around 70 Watt, compared to 700 Watt of the Mac Pro and PS3.
"There are many things keeping the Apple TV from being an appealing product, not only for me, but for millions of other potential customers, too"
If that's true, why is that every time I call the local Apple Stores, they're all sold?
The same was said about the iPad, but we all know that was false. Apple TV may still be a "hobby" but millions of people are going to buy it!
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TUAW (or The Unofficial Apple Weblog) is a website devoted to tips, reviews, news, analysis and opinion on everything Apple.
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