Apple isn't kidding AppleTV really is a hobby

[neone]

AppleTV has solved the technological side of this, and they have to be in there just in case the thing finally takes off, 5 or 10 or 25 years from now.

As for the author talking about others being successful at it, he's really missed the point that Jobs was making about this being a hobby.

A hobby is when a particular product sells in the 10,000 or 100,000 units a year range. All his examples of others being "successful" at it has failed to grasp that these toys are selling in very low volumes. IE: they are spectacular failures in terms of merchandising, the same way AppleTV has failed to generate interest.

Apple is in it long term for iTunes to succeed eventually, whether the final product is via AppleTV or via some other devices to buy the movies. That doesn't mean they will spend a lot of engineers or resources when the world isn't ready to buy it, but they will keep it on life support in case it does take off (in 5 or 10 or 25 years or however long it takes).

What this really brings to focus is that anyone who wants to sell a separate box for a particular digital download is doomed. The only ones who might succeed will be the ones who can work with existing cable/satellite STBs, or provide software for a gameConsole or even a BD-Live player with large persistent storage or perhaps storage-less live streaming.

[GizmoDVD]

Originally Posted by Elee s

Yeah but the interface is slow and cluttered. I use Boxee.

"I wanna get _____ so I can hack it" aint the greatest reason to buy something either. Might aswell spend a bill or 2 more and get a superior Nettop PC.

If you already had a ATV it was a viable solution.

[vinnie97]

Originally Posted by neone

AppleTV has solved the technological side of this, and they have to be in there just in case the thing finally takes off, 5 or 10 or 25 years from now.

As for the author talking about others being successful at it, he's really missed the point that Jobs was making about this being a hobby.

A hobby is when a particular product sells in the 10,000 or 100,000 units a year range. All his examples of others being "successful" at it has failed to grasp that these toys are selling in very low volumes. IE: they are spectacular failures in terms of merchandising, the same way AppleTV has failed to generate interest.

Apple is in it long term for iTunes to succeed eventually, whether the final product is via AppleTV or via some other devices to buy the movies. That doesn't mean they will spend a lot of engineers or resources when the world isn't ready to buy it, but they will keep it on life support in case it does take off (in 5 or 10 or 25 years or however long it takes).

What this really brings to focus is that anyone who wants to sell a separate box for a particular digital download is doomed. The only ones who might succeed will be the ones who can work with existing cable/satellite STBs, or provide software for a gameConsole or even a BD-Live player with large persistent storage or perhaps storage-less live streaming.

today iTunes, tomorrow iMovies?

[Sbert]

Originally Posted by GizmoDVD

...AND plays movie files via USB. Its a LG BD370 clone.

Yeah, bestbuy rebrands a lot of the LG stuff, including their TVs.

[h0mi]

So that insignia also supports mkvs/divx?

[Hunting Wabbits]

Originally Posted by AV_Integrated

What else supports the 100+ movies I have in MP4 format with surround sound? I'm ready to sell the ATV and move on to a PCH or WDTV2 if it will do more for me. Especially considering I have about 100 direct from DVD rips sitting on my PC.

If you are keeping your PC on all the time anyway does this thing really have any advantage over a PS3?

[GizmoDVD]

Originally Posted by h0mi

So that insignia also supports mkvs/divx?

Apparently, yes. I'll be buying one in a few hours to test.

[neone]

Originally Posted by vinnie97

today iTunes, tomorrow iMovies?

My guess : Apple is unlikely to change the iTunes brand. It is widely recognized and very successful, they carry more than tunes, as the iphone appstore uses the same infrastructure.

Apple's technical solution a direct download with possibilities of increasing mirrors transparently if needed is scalable, more secure and more tolerable to ISPs than this other company who tried the peer to peer approach to minimize their server costs at the expense of their customers bearing the brunt of the traffic 'costs' (meaning your disks and cablemodem/xDSL upload traffic can be used to feed your neighbor's purchase).

In fact, if needed, Apple has the clout and resources to work directly with each major ISP on localized mirrored servers to minimize the hops required to get at their content.

Because they've solved it and demonstrated it working, I'm more inclined to believe their experience with it is a reliable snapshot of the state of the download movie industry.

Apple is a very profitable publicly traded company, unlike most other players in this space, they do not rely on raising VC money and don't have to over-hype and produce ridiculous hockey graphs with inflections 18 months after this 'last round (before profitability) of funding' with unreadable qualifiers for the constituents of the data on the Y-axis.

It also means, the junior pundits and reporters may not like what they are saying because it's not the 'imminent-next-big-thing' message they really want to hear.

[vinnie97]

I suppose iTunes could indeed become synonymous with all of Apple's digital products. I don't use iTunes nor do I have an iPhone, which explains my unawareness...I am not trendy enough (nor do I care for the iTunes store/software).