CES Gadgets: Looks Like Apple TV Needs to Step It Up a Notch

[whooleytoo]

A thought just occured to me. What kind of killer seller would Apple have on their hands if the next Apple TV had a DVD drive that could both play movies and also rip them into the Apple format! Something that would automatically add cover art and metadata? I wouldn't even care if it had DRM for use with only my user account, it would just be great to have an easy way to get my DVD's into iTunes!

Wishful thinking perhaps.

Go a step further, make it Bluray too; and if necessary it can add DRM as it rips them if the studios so require.

If I could have my entire DVD, Bluray, downloaded video & music library on one big hard disk; viewable/listenable through my TV/amp I'd buy the AppleTV in a second.

 

[ftaok]

I still think the aTV can take this marketspace. If you look at the iPod, when it first came out, it was a revolutionary device in a small, relatively new marketspace. When they added PC compatibility, the iPod took off and the marketspace went berzerk.

With TV in the US at an obvious pivot point and the current penetration of HDTV sets, the aTV has the potential to be a game changer. The HDTV media extender marketspace is still in its infancy, but has a potential to be huge. Apple could turn the aTV into a huge force in this marketspace. Most folks want simplicity, which is Apple's forte. Do a few things extremely well and let the other guys be the jack-of-all-trades.

If they focus on getting a few things right, then they can be the dominant OEM in this marketspace.

A couple of hang-ups:

1. The media content providers probably don't want the movie download market to end up like the music download market. They'll likely block Apple's iTS strategy to prevent Apple from gobbling up a 60%+ share.

2. Apple's current unwillingness to open up the aTV platform. I contend that if the aTV had a developer base like the iPhone, everyone would want an aTV.

ft