I don’t get this. The Apple TV is, in my opinion, the best media extender out there. And, Apple TV sales have actually been going up at a healthy pace, despite not getting any advertising love.
The Apple TV has become a stealth success. You’d never know it though unless, like Don Resinger over at CNet, you’re paying close attention to Apple’s financial numbers.
Those numbers show that the Apple TV is not a hobby. It has real users who just want to watch the TV shows and movies they want, when they want, and could care less about the technology. Sure, if you want to grab the latest BBC shows in the U.S., like I do, you need to know how to use BitTorrent, know about specialist British TV and radio sites like TheBox to find these shows, and master Handbrake to transcode the videos into Apple TV’s MP4 format, But, and this is important, I doubt very much that most Apple TV users’ technical expertise goes beyond hooking their boxes up to a network.
In short, these are Joe and Jane users, the same ones who turned the iPod into a run away success. I don’t see any reason why Apple couldn’t do the same with the Apple TV simply by marketing it more.
Sure, you could make the Apple TV sexier with a bigger hard drive. You could make it more efficient, by adopting the finally to be finalized 802.11n Wi-Fi standard. Or, you could give users a real remote rather than the sure to be lost, gum-stick sized Apple TV remote. But, you know what? I think it doesn’t need any changes.
I think, as it is today, the Apple TV could be a rip-roaring success. Could it be improved on? You betcha. I’d like to see its software reconfigured so you could use it as a gateway to Hulu or one of the other free video-on-demand sites. That would really change the field.
But, really, all the Apple TV needs to lead the way to universally popular Internet TV, just like the iPod led the way to the mobile music revolution, is for Apple to start believing in it and backing it with more advertising. With that alone, I really think that the Apple TV could transform Internet TV.
So, if anyone from Apple happens to stumble across this note, think about it folks. Minimum investments, maximum rewards, you could do a lot worse than just giving the Apple TV the support it needs and deserves.