New Apple TV small and cheap

It’s hard to deny that Apple been raking in the money with success after success of their products. With pretty much everything put out with an Apple logo on it seems to sends people into some sort of frenzy, flooding into the stores to buy whatever Apple are selling. The exeption has been up until now, the Apple TV, that little black box that connects to TV sets and lets users buy content online, and play media from the built in hard drive and network devices.

When first launched in 2006, the analysts had high expectations for the Apple TV, spouting off statements you often hears during Apple product launches like “It’s going to change the world!”, “It’s Magical!” and “I so want one! What does it do, again?” That said, it never lived up to any of its hype.

In reality, Apple TV has been more of a success people give it credit for. Any product that sells over six million units and generates decent profits can’t be considered a failure, although it isn’t nearly the runaway success of other Apple products like the iPhone or iPad. Most importantly, it’s proven to Apple that people will pay to rent and stream video content. Where people pay to consume media, Apple will be there to rake in the profits.

Apple’s TV finally comes out with a new box. Like almost all the new Apple products, it’s smaller and sleeker than the original, sports an industrial design, and has too few connectivity options. However, it vastly differs from the original Apple TV. For example, there is no hard drive.

It receives streams from the Internet or network only, and don’t think about plugging in a USB drive to play media locally that won’t work either. It will still play audio, video, and photos just fine from over a network, but only supports up to 720p, thats a bit behind the times for media playback devices these days.

It’s online offerings are what has really changed though.  For starters, it hooks into the web to play content from Netflix, YouTube, Flickr and MobileMe. Which is unusual for Apple to directly support services that compete with its own itunes. But for many, this is what must be done to compete in the online tv market. Of course, Apple content will still be unique to the Apple TV and put it above other media-boxes. For now anyway.

Plus Apple have moved to a rent only model now, no options to buy. Movies are $3 to $4, HDTV show rentals are 0.99 cents. The only downside being that currently their TV content is only from ABC and FOX. If you have loads of other Apple gear, there are some cool integration options coming that will let you play something directly to the Apple TV. They call it “AirPlay.” It’s basically Windows 7′s Play To feature.

The thing is though, most viewers and consumers in general are confused or even unaware about how to use an Internet-connected TV. There is no one big company pushing the brand, but a growing number of competitors. Apple realise this will be a very lucrative market when someone gets it right.

“They are getting more aggressive in the living room, and that’s the last big market that can move the needle for Apple,” said Gene Munster, an analyst with Piper Jaffray.

So the million dollar (literally) question is, Will Apple TV on it’s second incarnation become a success? If it were not for the Apple brand then probably no. As a set-top media receiver, it’s mediocre at best if you compare it to ones like Western Digital’s WD TV Live, lacking features like local playback, 1080p HD support, and broad codec compatibility. As a device that connects you to online services, it’s severely lacking. Yes, it supports Netflix, but you probably already have some devices that can connect you to Netflix and YouTube. I think it will hold its own as a rental device. Of course, those not giving Netflix or Hulu any money may find value in the rental service.

With the Apple branding and ‘cool’ factor though, it will probably be a massive success, not because people blindly buy Apple products although quite a few do, but because $99 is a pretty good preicepoint, the distribution channels open to them and the advertising that will go into it.

Hi everyone my name is Kelly from the UK. Please let me know what you think of my posts by leaving a comment (or 2)

Kelly

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