Apple is Invading the Living Room.
Video Clip: PC World - Apple TV Reviewed.
(Original Source: PC World - Apple TV Reviewed.)
The Apple TV
It has been more than a week since the Apple TV is released. So far, users are kind of satisfied with this new Apple product because of its simplicity and easy-to-use features. In fact, numerous hackers are working different ways to turn the $300 Apple TV into a MacBook, boot the Apple TV from a USB drive, run Apple TV on a MacBook, run non-supported video formats on Apple TV, and some even try to upgrade the drive in the Apple TV.
This new Apple TV is probably one of the most rapidly hacked Apple product in the history, and I believe there are reasons behind these temptations to hack. I will talk about them after giving you an overview of the Apple TV.
Overview
The device runs an Intel processor equipped with 802.11n WiFi technology, and it comes with a 40GB hard drive. You can stream the downloaded movies, musics and photos from your iTunes, either on a MacBook or a Windows PC, over the home network, or you can sync the contents from your iTunes to the 40GB hard drive. What this basically means is that you can wirelessly stream the contents from the iTunes libraries of up to 5 computers, as well as directly play the contents from the box's 40GB hard drive.
The purpose of this new Apple TV is to allow people to show their downloaded movies, musics and photos on the television. However, there are some limitations/drawbacks:
1) A widescreen TV is required (Perhaps a HDTV too)
2) Only trailers and previews can be streamed directly
3) Cannot play high definitions videos
4) Cannot directly connect to the iTunes Store to download any media contents
5) 40GB hard drive is insufficient to carry many movies
6) Movies and music shows look blurry when you play on a HDTV although they have the same nominal DVD resolution
Implications
With the limitations/drawbacks mentioned above, it makes sense why hackers cannot let their Apple TV sit quietly in front of their TV sets because they are not very satisfied with the Apple TV yet. Therefore, they are trying to look for more features and larger capacity. Also, it shows the potentials of this Apple TV of becoming a device that is more powerful and useful in the coming future.
Currently, Apple TV is like a tester in the market. Apple is really trying to see how eager people are to connect their computers to the television. Truly, one can connect a computer to the television with a S-Video cord, but in the longer term, if Apple TV expands its features, more people might be willing to buy one due to its convenience and reasonable price. I believe Apple is really trying to enjoy the first-mover advantage in the new 802.11n standards, as well as syncing/streaming contents from a computer to the television. Moreover, it helps to boost Apple's innovative brand image to more customers, especially when this Apple TV works on cross-platforms. That means both Mac users and Windows users can use Apple TV as far as they have Apple iTunes installed in their computers.
With Apple's move into the living room gadgets and allowing cross-platforms use, we can conclude that Apple is really thinking big in the technology era. First, we see the big success of the iPods and iTunes. Then we see the Boot Camp in the new MacBooks that allows running Windows XP and Vista on Mac computers. And recently, the iPhone generated a lot of noise in the market. All these imply that Apple is really invading into our daily life, and it might become a big threat to Microsoft. The strategy that Apple is using now is to open its network to allow Windows users to try its featured products, and by doing so, it might have a chance to lock-in new customers.
The question now is what is Apple going to do with the Apple TV? Is Apple going to release multiple versions of the Apple TV just like the iPods? Is Apple going to allow software updates through the network to enhance more features? Is Apple eventually going to allow documents to be streamed to the television?
It's too early to make an assumption for the Apple TV, but in the long term, I believe the Apple TV is going to be a revolution because with the strong position of iTunes in the industry, Apple TV can be very attractive for people who seek for simplicity and instant gratifications of media contents. Imagine if you can download movies to your Apple TV and watch it on your nice HD television, then why do you want to download movies from Netflix or Amazon.com and watch it on a tiny screen? Moreover, if you can download HD or Blu-Ray quality movies to your Apple TV one day, then why do you need to buy a HD-DVD player or Blu-Ray DVD player? We really have to stay tuned with Apple and this Apple TV.
Other Reviews
1) Pogue's Posts - Bridging the Computer-to-TV Divide
http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/03/22/bridging-the-computer-to-tv-divide/#more-251
2) The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/22/technology/22pogue.html
3) The Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB117443716237743525-AC8bUe8X978hZmC7A85mAccsld8_20080320.html
4) PC Mag
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2104968,00.asp
5) Associated Press
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070404/ap_on_hi_te/tech_test_apple_tv;_ylt=Av6W1ZHw3ds844IwYnIu54UjtBAF
Photos Gallery
http://www.engadget.com/photos/apple-tv-unboxing/
5 comments:
It's pretty interesting to see what Mac's doing. I would think if a Windows compatible version of macTV came out, it would work better since more people own the Windows OS.
But at the same time, I think Apple really has its customers locked in so that people will use macTV; if an independent firm came up with similar product that works with the windows OS, though there might a lot more people it could serve, the number of people willing to use it might not be as high as MacTV.
Just another interesting fact:
A lot of residential architecture has a built in (like a space on your wall) dock for your ipod. I heard some houses (experimental probably), you put your ipod in the dock which is on the wall near the front door, and then it can be controlled by your home media system.
Maybe when MacTV becomes more widespread, it can be a part of the actual architecture of the house as well.
I guess we'll never know, but as you can see from automobile industry, most new cars have a ipod dock now; maybe it'll be that way for architecture as well
In my opinion, Apple TV feels more like a complementary product to Apple's other products (an iPod or a Mac). It is good for those who have already owned Apple products, but what about those outside the Apple environment. Even those who are loyal to Apple and have bought an Apple TV seems unsatisfied with all the hackings they have tried.
This might also be just the case of Apple experimenting into a new market. As discussed already in class, companies with plenty of money can afford to do such a thing. Failure is a non-issue, while success is a bonus.
With the impending release of the iPhone in June 2007, Apple is perhaps trying to build a sense of anticipation by the release of Apple TV.
On the other hand, the drawbacks/limitations will certainly deter any potential customers to go and buy one. The inability to play high-definition videos is going to hurt it since we are currently in the middle of the high-definition format war.
Lastly, I have a feeling that Apple is trying to take over the media world. With Mac, Apple TV, iPod, and iPhone already in Apple's sights, what's next?
It's the iWorld people.
I think you've done a great analysis, but I don't buy the Apple hype. It's price point is great at $300 for a 802.11n device, but its functionality, as you mention in your post, is lacking. Sure you can hack it and expand that capability, but I seriously doubt many people will do that. When it comes to technology, the mass market wants it to work out of the box. Don't even ask them to crack open the device, because not only are they afraid of voiding their warranty, they've never even looked or know what's inside their computer! Flash the firmware in order to boot up the hard drive? They'd think they'd walked into an adult video store. So until Apple comes out with upgraded version of this (albeit at a higher price point) this is probably going to be another ipod shuffle (cheap, nice looking, but lacking, and a dilution to the Apple brand IMHO).
Another funny contradiction that you mention, but didn't explicitly point out is that you need an HDTV to use the device, but you can't play HD videos? I'm sorry, but technologically Apple is retarded for doing that.
Furthermore, although everyone makes out HDTV as the next greatest thing, this article here states that "On a global basis, by the end of 2010 the number of HD ready households will reach 174m or 22% of TV households. The figure will be 59% in the US, 66% in Japan and 30% in Western Europe." This means that although HDTV will be the next standard, it’ll take many more years before everyone has one. I guess this gives Apple more time to improve their product before then, but for now myself, along with the rest of the world, is safe from the evil grasp of 'Apple's iWorld'. :)
the article I mentioned didn't link, so here it is:
http://www.screendigest.com/reports/06highdeftv/readmore/view.html
Haha, what Benson said is really interesting and funny. And I totally agree.
AppleTV's functionality is seriously lacking right now. It just looks like Apple is trying to transfer some of the computer's capability to this 'cool and sleek' little box. But thinking about its practicality, it doesn't make sense to have it at the moment. I seriously don't see the point of spending $300 on a little box that I still need to hack to add more functionalities.
I see this gadget as something that is more for sharing your stuff in your computer with others, why do you need it if you are not going to share or when you can send your friends what you want to share over the net? Or just connect it to the tv?
This weekend, me and my friends were thinking of buying a gift for a friend's birthday. I suggested this AppleTV to my engineering and computer science friends because I know the birthday boy is a fan of Apple...After some discussion, nobody sounded interested in this $300 box because we figured that there is probably not much sharing to do and our birthday boy has a 20+ inch Mac desktop with the same AppleTV remote that also comes with Mac desktops. The fact that it cannot play HD videos irked them the most.
I do appreciate that Apple is doing a lot to attract new customers by making it compatible with Windows PC. However, they need to seriously evaluate and improve on the product. If not, the locking-in of new customers might not work. They will only continue locking their old customers and locking them deeper.
Current user rating of ApplyTV on CNet = 6.4/10
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