Second Coming Of The Apple TV In 2008? Not Judging By It's Absence From Their Holiday Gift Guide

Wired mag has gone out on a limb and predicted that 2008 could be a very big year for the Apple TV. Yes, that's right, it's not a typo. First pointing out some of the reasoning behind the remarkable failure of the Apple TV in 2007 such as it's total eclipse by the iPhone launch, and Steve Jobs' calling it merely a "hobby", Bryan Gardiner has put together a list of things Apple can do in 2008 to make the "new DVD player for the internet age" a hit.

Gardiner isn't alone in his optimism, as analyst's such as Carl Howe predict upwards of 7 million Apple TV's sold next year. Given the pathetic 400000 units sold as of the beginning of the holiday season this year, we're tempted to call this optimism something more along the lines of irrational exuberance. But here is Gardiner's list of tasks Apple needs to accomplish to turn the Apple TV from hobby to hit in 2008. Of course we stuck in our own smart-ass commentary just to make things interesting.

1. Movie Rentals-Apple TV chose to announce and release the Apple TV in January, most likely before deals with studios were complete. Evidence has begun to mount that Apple is preparing for a new video-on-demand service as soon as studios are willing to go ahead with it. If the Apple TV is a set-top box or even a "sort of a new DVD player for the internet age" as Jobs called it, a wide selection of available movie rentals is a must.

2. HD Content-Gardiner points out the the Apple TV was made for HD with an included HDMI port. Unfortunately, iTunes movie offerings are only capable of 640x480 pixel display, far from high-def resolution. Once again, blame is put on the studios with their ongoing preoccupation with DRM on their HD content, meaning they won't give the go-ahead until they are sure they won't be robbed of their content-related dollars via the Apple TV or iTunes. Apple has also not quite figured out their distribution strategy as streamed HD content is on average 4 times larger than streamed standard-def content. Possible 2008 solutions: embedding a BitTorrent-like client in Leopard or iTunes that would see distribution of HD video via a Apple-only peer-to-peer community, or a partnership with Akamai who recently announced a new service providing delivery of HD-content across interwebs.

3. Optical Drive-Apple is in the Blu-ray camp, but I can't see this one happening. Additional features are always nice, but the Apple TV is about Apple iTunes delivered content. A Blu-ray drive would put way too much power in the hands of the consumer and indirectly the production studios. Steve Jobs would never let this happen.

4. PVR Functionality-The unusable USB port on the back of the Apple TV, the one Apple says is for "services and diagnostics purposes", could be used for recording television. Yes, this additional feature would make perfect sense and would make the TV more attractive to consumers. But Jobs would have to move outside the Apple world to make this a reality. Not going to happen.

5. Larger Hard Drive-Gardiner thinks Apple really needs to move internal storage on the Apple TV beyond the max 160 GB offered now, especially if they plan to offer more high-def content. Alternatively, that useless USB port could be used for connection to external hard drive. We here at TVSnob thinks Gardiner might be getting a little ahead of himself here. Apple should focus on the content availability and Apple TV sales before they worry about content storage. Nothing like awesome storage capacity for storing absolutely nothing.

Gardiner lists a few other things Apple might consider doing with the Apple TV to make it a more attractive offering, but we'll let you head over to Wired to check that out. In the end though, he thinks Apple needs to focus on the Apple TV in 2008 or just ditch it altogether.

Now that you've read the whole article, we'd just like to point out some evidence that Apple won't implement any of these ideas. Valleywag's Paul Boutin noticed the other day that the Apple TV is completely absent from the landing page of Apple's holiday gift guide. But then again, why give a product nobody wants to buy prime space on your website. I guess we'll just have to wait until the New Year to see what's in store for the Apple TV.

December 23, 2007

Second Coming Of The Apple TV In 2008? Not Judging By It's Absence From Their Holiday Gift Guide