Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Why Hasn't Apple TV Exploded In Popularity?

B

BoulderBum

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 3, 2008
513
0
I am a BIG fan of the Apple TV. I watch YouTube and Video Podcasts more than cable TV and the vast majority of my rentals are now from the iTunes store. The integration with iPhone's remote app is great, the Flickr and sync functionality is super, the ability to stream from iTunes is intuitive and powerful, and the usability is unparalleled!

It's a really, really amazing device! Apple still calls it "a hobby", however, and I don't think sales have been superb, and in a way I don't get it! It seems underrated to me.

I think one of the devices belongs with every TV set as much as a cable box.

So why do you think it hasn't become mainstream yet? Is it the HDTV requirement, the DRM, lack of marketing, ignorance of its existance? What?

Any opinions?
 
BoulderBum said:
I am a BIG fan of the Apple TV. I watch YouTube and Video Podcasts more than cable TV and the vast majority of my rentals are now from the iTunes store. The integration with iPhone's remote app is great, the Flickr and sync functionality is super, the ability to stream from iTunes is intuitive and powerful, and the usability is unparalleled!

It's a really, really amazing device! Apple still calls it "a hobby", however, and I don't think sales have been superb, and in a way I don't get it! It seems underrated to me.

I think one of the devices belongs with every TV set as much as a cable box.

So why do you think it hasn't become mainstream yet? Is it the HDTV requirement, the DRM, lack of marketing, ignorance of its existance? What?

Any opinions?
Click to expand...

Well up until last week in Australia it was a combination of price and lack of video content.

Now it's lack of marketing, ignorance of it's existence and the fact that downloading one rental SD video is going to knock out 80% of the population's monthly download quota. Stupid greedy backward thinking arsewipe telcos.
 
Well there are no commercials advertising their product and Apple does not push this thing the way they should. I love the fact that I can encode all my Dvd's that I purchased and place them on the Apple Tv. Amazing device.
 
I would say price in the UK.

£200 for the 40gb and £3.50 for new release rental :O
 
I may get my arse handed to me here but maybe a better way to go would be to offer the ATV for free and up the price of rentals and purchases by £1. Then Apple could recoup that extra £1 and the rest goes to the greedy bastard movie companies.

That way popularity will really take off because its free and there will be a constant income from the ATV project for Apple. To increase that income Apple will need to push the device more so it's win - win in my view.
 
JAWWC said:
I would say price in the UK.

£200 for the 40gb and £3.50 for new release rental :O
Click to expand...

Having had mine since launch (in the UK) i can confidently say i would still be been delighted even if i had paid twice that..........it's flipping awsome..a few TB of converted movies & tv shows helps too :)
 
Beacuse ATV is meant to integrate with iTMS and more specifically iTMS Rentals!

1. iTMS is only available in a select few countries!
2. iTMS Rentals available in even fewer countries!
3. Read post below
 
Poor number of rental choices. Even now, only about 1,500 rentals are available in the U.S. That's ten percent of what's available for free on the Netflix player.
 
It doesn't seem like it does enough for the price, besides I don't watch TV/films that much anyway.
Also, its advertising is pretty lacklustre, which can't help.
 
mrfrosty said:
Having had mine since launch (in the UK) i can confidently say i would still be been delighted even if i had paid twice that..........it's flipping awsome..a few TB of converted movies & tv shows helps too :)
Click to expand...

I recently payed the £200 for it and think its the best thing under my TV (theres lots there). But I just use it for having my dvds on my computer streamed across. Can't justify paying £3.50 for a rental when DVDs are that price.
 
AppleTV

I work the Apple section at an electronics shop....

And like the Macbook Air, the :apple:TV people just go "ah, that's very cool" but see little practical use for it.

They admire the innovation and see it as a cool idea, but shy away from it for the same reason we aren't all rolling around on Segways!

MacOS X is simple and practical and people like it. AppleTV? Too... Too... I dunno!

Not the mention, the two, like all :apple: products, are hideously expensive for what they are. (Yet, I'll be buying the next rev. Apple TV! haha)

Thanks!
 
It has in our house. We watch very little broadcast TV, disconnected the satellite, put the DVD player away (finally), and get most of our programming for the iTunes Store.
 
It needs a few large improvements to be widespread:

(1) iTunes Subscription Rental Service
(2) DVR Functionality
(3) Blu-Ray Player

Now, Apple for obvious reasons does not want to put a Blu-Ray drive in it, but since most people do not own one yet, the Apple TV would be the perfect Blu-Ray player to buy due to all of the other features, not to mention rentals through iTunes.

These three upgrades would grab the most potential customers. They can ever do #2 & #3 as a higher end model.

The biggest reason the Apple TV needs a physical drive is that if Apple intends to market this for the masses, the fact is most of them cannot, nor will not use Handbrake or Visual Hub. If Apple had a DVD Inject Option (that also work DRM, otherwise the movie studio would never consider it), then maybe they wouldn't need the drive (I still would use Handbrake, but it would make it easy for everyday iTunes users).
 
I agree with zedsdead's first two improvements but I would be happy with an upconverting-DVD player instead. I'm pretty sure it would cost over a thousand dollars if the next TV had a BRD player.
 
i purchased one a few weeks ago for my boyfriend's birthday, but before we opened the box he kinda read up a little more on it and realized that the cost of rentals is cheaper using our netflix account so we returned it.

is there a thread already displaying all the real benefits of having ATV? i thought it was a pretty neat idea... or else i would not have bought it for me ;) .... but was disappionted when i realize how much everything on iTunes cost on top of the original price of the unit. :(
 
wordmunger said:
Poor number of rental choices. Even now, only about 1,500 rentals are available in the U.S. That's ten percent of what's available for free on the Netflix player.
Click to expand...

But the Netflix player (Roku) has sold even fewer units than the Apple TV.

Also, correct me if I'm wrong here, but the Netflix streaming rentals are all old or B-movies. That's what I remembered of their online service before I cancelled it because of the Apple TV, anyway.

Streaming new releases is a stronger advantage, IMO.
 
zedsdead said:
It needs a few large improvements to be widespread:

(1) iTunes Subscription Rental Service
(2) DVR Functionality
(3) Blu-Ray Player
Click to expand...

I would take just #2 for now, although #1 could easily be implemented.

Why doesn't Apple just buy Tivo (which I have), put the software on Apple TV, and sell lots?
 
I think that apple tv has become popular with many existing apple customers. The problems I see with it are that the standard consumer doesn't necessarily understand streaming or electronic video delivery. They have just finally adopted digital music on a grand scale and I think that video will eventually catch up to that but for now, most people are still too accustomed to buying a DVD or renting one or using their cable or Tivo.

Another thing is, there are so many options out there and most people that understand what Apple tv can do already have something that does similar things.

Lastly, I think that we aren't seeing an explosion because the apple tv doesn't have the public "cool" factor that apple items like the ipod, iphone, and macbook air have had. An apple tv sits in your home and no one can see the product. With an ipod you had white earbuds that showed how "cool" you were to have an ipod or now pulling out your iphone in starbucks or on the street has the same kind of value.

Unfortunately, I think we have a few years until apple tv sees major success, if ever.
 
The aTV is not for everyone. For me it makes sense as I wanted a way to placeshift my existing media collection. I am not a regular movie renter so those features didnt really appeal to me too much. I have rented a few movies but I dont have a netflix account or a blockbuster or hollywood video account. I also dont buy alot of video from the iTMS so that wasnt even a big draw for me. But I do have a large audio collection as well as Movies and TV Shows on my main computer in my room. Without getting a 2nd computer I simply wanted to watch movies and listen to music in the front room.

The aTV made sense as I was already quite embedded into using iTunes and it was wireless. So for me, the advantage of being able to watch my digital media in the other room with a nice interface and something simple that my mother in law could use it. It has fit quite well.

The big pain has been getting a proper storage scheme and space to rip my existing DVD collection which I would love to have full access to on the aTV.

Would I like to see some other things? Sure.

An upscaling DVD player would be nice, but would go against the whole ripping of my DVD plan. Also, it goes against the sharing throughout the house plan that I envision.

The one thing I would like to see, would be a better remote. The remote it comes with, while simple, is very limited. I put that one away and use my programable remote and now my iPhone, but advanced features would be nice.

So to reiterate, the aTV is not for everyone. that doesnt make it a bad product, it just makes it a limited use product.
 
I don't have an iPhone or an iPod. I do have a 52"LCD 1080 TV connected to Dish Network where I can order all the latest movies if I choose. I have a Blue Ray DVD player and rent films from the local shop nearby. For the life of me, I can see no reason to buy Apple TV. I don't want to watch TV on my computer (iMac 20").:confused:
 
I think its mostly because people get it stuck in their heads that they NEED the iTMS for the :apple:tv, When in reality all you need is some dvd's and software to put them into itunes. The only thing keeping me from getting one is the fact that my family still believes tv's from the late 80's are perfectly fine and that I use front row in my bed room. If we had an LCD, I would definitely get one!
 
Gaelic1 said:
I don't have an iPhone or an iPod. I do have a 52"LCD 1080 TV connected to Dish Network where I can order all the latest movies if I choose. I have a Blue Ray DVD player and rent films from the local shop nearby. For the life of me, I can see no reason to buy Apple TV. I don't want to watch TV on my computer (iMac 20").:confused:
Click to expand...

You are missing the whole point of :apple:TV. You don't watch TV on your computer. The :apple:TV hooks up to your TV, and you store the content on your computer. You can then stream the content to your TV, and additionally can watch YouTube videos or movie rentals directly with the :apple:TV. I have every one of my DVDs ripped and encoded on my iMac, about 1.3 TB worth on externals and if I want to watch one, I just scroll through them on my TV in the other room and pick one. I've never used the rental part, so I can't comment on that.
However, if you don't have a DVD collection and all you do is rentals then yes, the :apple:TV is not for you.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back