Apple TV clearly a complete failure

[Filliam H. Muffman]

Article Accelerator wrote:
[quote=Filliam H. Muffman]
I see why some people like it if they are iTunes customers and have a computer set up as a media center. I think it would get a lot more penetration if it had just a little more functionality.

What are you looking for?
Are you asking seriously or just being sarcastic like the other half dozen short comments in the last couple days?

[Black Landlord]

Filliam H. Muffman wrote:
[quote=Article Accelerator]
[quote=Filliam H. Muffman]
I see why some people like it if they are iTunes customers and have a computer set up as a media center. I think it would get a lot more penetration if it had just a little more functionality.

What are you looking for?
Are you asking seriously or just being sarcastic like the other half dozen short comments in the last couple days?
Give him a break, he's been through kind of a lot lately.

[Article Accelerator]

sekker wrote:
I, too, am still puzzled - does it do anything well except allow one to order movies from iTunes?

Why, yes, it does! In fact, everything it does, it does well. Regarding what it does, this is a posting I made to a prior thread:


Apple TV

Here's a quick summary:

- Movies jukebox for your own movies and videos
- Movies rental and purchase (including HD with full multi-channel audio)
- Movie trailers

- TV show purchases (including HD show versions)

- Music playback (both stored and streamed from host libraries with built-in support for Genius and On-The-Go playlist creation and album art display)
- Music purchases (with automatic sync to the specified host's iTunes library)
- Music videos purchase and playback with playlist support

- Podcast streaming and download (both audio and video podcasts including HD for the latter)

- Photos (individual and slideshows) from the following sources:
--sync'd
--streamed
--flickr
--MobileMe

- YouTube videos (best quality and best interface)

These features are all provided in a small, silent, self-contained box that accommodates the simplest possible hook-up (power+HDMI cable only--no 'wall wart' or power brick and no network cable required because WiFi capability is built-in) and very simple setup, interface, and remote control. Operation--including synchronization--is highly automatic.

Apple TV can be remotely controlled with a GUI interface by the iPhone or iPod touch.

Nothing improves TV like Apple TV. The use of disc-based media seems so clumsy and primitive once you've used Apple TV...

[Article Accelerator]

Filliam H. Muffman wrote:
[quote=Article Accelerator]
[quote=Filliam H. Muffman]
I see why some people like it if they are iTunes customers and have a computer set up as a media center. I think it would get a lot more penetration if it had just a little more functionality.

What are you looking for?
Are you asking seriously or just being sarcastic like the other half dozen short comments in the last couple days?
I'm being serious.

[guitarist]

Paul F. wrote:

To suggest Apple TV sold only 10-15 units is ludicrous.

As has already been stated, that article doesn't cite any numbers. So go ahead, prove me wrong.

With the exception of a couple TV spots right after it came out, I have seen ZERO print ads, ZERO banner ads outside of Apples own sites, and heard of ZERO people locally talking about it, discussing it, or saying "I have to get one of those!".

Maybe they've sold incredibly well despite all that... that would be great.

But the Apple TV is still the slutty fat girl of the party... some people might "know" her, but they're not admitting they "know" her!

Paul, sorry to see you so grumpy and negative about a product you have no investment or personal interest in one way or another. Calling Apple TV a slutty fat girl is rather silly. I am one of a dozen or so forum members who own and enjoy an Apple TV, and can speak from personal experience, she is quite thin and elegant. While I can't speak for other Apple TV users, my unit doesn't have indiscriminate, reckless sex. Her fidelity is to its owner is not an issue. She's as monogamous, and sexually appealing, and faithful as the day I brought her home. She asks for little, and delivers a lot.

That said, it makes no sense that the burden of proof should be on someone else to disprove your pessimistic and goofy numerical statement of 10-15 units sold. As far as I know, Apple isn't obligated to provide sales breakdowns product by product, this is nothing new.

Apple is also not obligated to provide the level of TV advertising suit your taste, or meet your personal approval. Tons of TV ads, no TV ads, a few TV ads, I doubt this is of much significance either way. You seem to be under the impression that this product being starved of visibility. If that's your opinion, I'm okay with it. It's likely if it had lots of TV ads, you might complain that Apple advertises it too much, and change your complaint to what an overhyped product it is.

I don't disagree about it not having the on-the-street buzz that other products have, people saying "oh I gotta get one of those", I agree. I think its currently aimed at a niche user, a home-theater hobbyist. The fact that it can be joined only with a 21st century flat-screen TV limits it, that alone is enough to exclude many potential customers. Its features, while good, aren't as "must have" as other super-desirable Apple products.

Apple normally waits for a market to develop and mature to a certain degree before entering the market with its "must have" version that makes all others wither, or run for cover. This is an exception. This market isn't mature by a long shot. But Apple is experimenting anyway. There's not a lot to lose by tinkering, at this stage, but much to gain.

I'm optimistic, I expect to see it improve. This market is not an Apple priority, but they're better than most at reading and responding to customers desires, sometimes before the customers understand those things themselves. Apple appears to be invested in improving it.

In the meantime, the dissatisfied users are free to hack away, and play TV shows from the internet, play a wider range of file formats most people haven't heard of, and listen to internet broadcast sources not available in iTunes. As an iPhone hacker, I'm familiar with the pros and cons of modifying Apple gear, and might add Boxee to the Apple TV at some time in the future, when I have the impulse to tinker. Right out of the box, it's an impressively gratifying product. If it doesn't suit your taste, or align with your view of what Apple should or shouldn't do? Don't buy one. The rest of us will enjoy ours.

I'm just happy to report what appeared in a news item earlier today, the product is selling better than many here expected.

[Lux Interior]

I'm one of the 15 aTV owners.

It's like Tivo (the experience, not the functionality). You just can't explain it to people. You have to experience it. I was one of the "Tivo is just an over priced VCR" people, but after I got it, I would never give it up.

I am in the process of ripping all my DVDs to ATV format using Handbrake. It's like SoundJam all over again! I thought it was awesome to have all my CDs just a click away. Now all my movies are (or will be) easily available.

I am just starting to explore Boxee/XMBC. Got them installed and have been playing with them. Next step is to get AFS running on the ATV and plug my 3 TB drive to use as NFS.

[Forrest]

OK, looks like all 15 AppleTV owners have replied to this message thread

At $229 it's almost an impulse buy. If it turns out you don't like it, there seems to be no shortage of buyers as the Apple refurbished model always sells out quickly at $199

[Article Accelerator]

Paul F. wrote:
Based on the complete LACK of advertising for the product (that I've seen, anyway), they must have tripled a sales of 5 units, to 15 units...

No, it's more than 15, Paul.

Before this "tripling" news, there were these reports:

Piper Jaffray Estimates Apple TV Sales
Estimates from the developer of atvusb-creator
"Downloads of the AppleTV installer are currently running at about 1k/day with almost 30k downloads in about 1 month and that's even just the OSX platform version of the installer. I can't wait to see the numbers when the Win32 platform installer is released. I seriously doubt that I'm seeing 10 percent of AppleTV users, more like 1 percent which puts my estimated total AppleTVs at somewhere between 1 to 3 million."

So, at that time (October 2008) it looked like Apple had sold about 4.5 million Apple TV units.

It could be quite a few more now given that another 3 months have passed and this news in the OP.

[guitarist]

Lux Interior wrote:

I am in the process of ripping all my DVDs to ATV format using Handbrake. It's like SoundJam all over again! I thought it was awesome to have all my CDs just a click away. Now all my movies are (or will be) easily available.

I am just starting to explore Boxee/XMBC. Got them installed and have been playing with them. Next step is to get AFS running on the ATV and plug my 3 TB drive to use as NFS.

Lux, sounds like you're in a similar position as me. I immediately discovered its potential to store DVD content, and began a campaign of Handbrake rips that yielded about a hundred titles. I set up the Apple TV to stream my movie library from an external HD attached to an iMac on our network via iTunes. To make it more visually navigable, using Google picture search, I added the movie posters for each of these movies, in the Artwork preference in iTunes, a drag-and-drop process that's effortless. Handling physical DVD discs is rarer. It's convenient to have all the titles at the tip of my fingers. CD music content, too, as you mentioned. Easily operated using the Remote App on my iPhone.

At first I dismissed Boxee, lacking the motive, but since have reconsidered. My wife watched a full-screen, hi-resolution episode of "Medium" she'd missed the night before, on our iMac last night, via Hulu. The viewing experience was impressive. I'm sold, I see why people dig Hulu.

We also have the Apple TV drawing recorded and categorized content from Elgato's EyeTV, a compatible arrangement that gives us DVR convenience, too.

Puzzling that there's such a toxic level of hostility and discontent about Apple TV. People have strong feelings about it, differing views of its role, and endless advice about its problems and potential. Mostly from people who don't own one. If Apple were to add every feature that holdouts complain it doesn't have, it would look like a Microsoft product. It would be a gaming platform, have a radio receiver, a subscription service, play Windows Media files, have a Vista interface, a "Battlestar Galactica" screen saver, and a plugin for a miniature 7-11 Slurpee machine. Those of us who actually own an Apple TV are almost universally content, consider it one of Apple's underrated products, and dismiss most of the passenger-seat complaints as trivial.

[Lux Interior]

guitarist wrote:
Lux, sounds like you're in a similar position as me. I immediately discovered its potential to store DVD content, and began a campaign of Handbrake rips that yielded about a hundred titles.

I followed this post and automated the conversion process. It works, but my MPB is locked up every morning.

http://forum.handbrake.fr/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=7681

(automating the DVD conversion process with Handbrake, Fairmount and AppleScript for the Apple TV)