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March 23, 2007

2:03 pm | 0 recommendations | 10 comments

Will Apple Divide and Conquer?

| posted by Kevin Ohannessian

Apple's bid to control your TV has been released. Apple TV is a box you connect to your television. You transfer photos, videos (including high definition) and music to it from your computer. You can then watch it, or listen to it, on your television. It is basically an extension of iTunes and the iPod to your TV. Will people pay the $299 to let Apple take over their living room?

It seems to me that Apple TV will not be particularly successful beyond the Mac faithful. People have been downloading videos to watch on their televisions for years through Media PCs. Microsoft even extended this functionality to the Xbox 360. No, as Steve Jobs said himself, Apple's next great endeavor is letting them take over your mobile experience.

Apple's iPhone is more ambitious and has the potential to get in the hands of more of the public than any other Apple device has before. Though the high price, $500 or $600, may be a barrier to many, the rumored rebates from official iPhone carrier Cingular could help with that.

Despite releasing Apple TV, and releasing any of the supposed Mac updates coming later this year, Apple's focus has become the iPhone--just look at the television commercial airing. Will this strategy bring them more success than even the ubiquitous iPod? Or are they overextending themselves with moves to conquer the living room and the mobile space?

Tags: Leadership, strategy
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Recent Comments | 10 Total

March 23, 2007 at 2:51pm

z3rr0 Zeluco
I think we have yet to see what Apple's strategy is with Apple TV. Just today it was reported that hackers have figured out how to make the device play more video formats by adding Mac OS X QuickTime drivers to the hard drive manually. That tells us that the device is running some version of Mac OS X. It also tell us that users have some access to the guts of the device and when that happens, devices become very popular with the geek culture. I know I want one, but not to watch television. I want one so I can watch video podcasts like Diggnation and The Merlin Show on my 46" DPL without having to move my laptop to the TV.
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March 23, 2007 at 3:35pm

form0013
Love Apple products and I especially excited about the iphone. However, I am disappointed with their selection of carriers for its release. I don't know about most but Cingular has the worst coverage in Minneapolis and is reknown for dropping calls (despite their current advertising campaign). All I can hope for is that they decide to spread their wings and offer the iphone for the other carriers.
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March 23, 2007 at 3:49pm

anona
"It seems to me that Apple TV will not be particularly successful beyond the Mac faithful." famous last worrds. The real question is if you'll stop pointificating when this too turns out to be another boneheaded prediction on your part.
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March 23, 2007 at 3:51pm

dHaneDiEsiL
I was won over by Apple about two years ago, and since then, my computing experience hasn't been the same. I really don't watch TV or movies to the extent to where I need an external medium, such as Apple Tv to do it. However, the iPhone is a product I think will change the way we talk on the cell phone, just how the iPod changed the way we do music. Im eager to see what the Jobs camp will do to make this product stand out amongst the others. I somewhat agree with the previous post about the carriers that Apple has chosen. I have never had Cingular myself, but from what my friends have told me, it is not all that great. So I guess we will just have to wait and see what materializes to find out which product will really get Apple over the hump.
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March 23, 2007 at 6:08pm

Tom B
If the Xbox or media center PC's had been compelling products, surely Apple wouldn't have entered this market.
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March 24, 2007 at 5:19am

jbelkin
Well, if "only" the mac faithful buy this, that's sales of 30 million or 6 times the audience of the Xbox 360 ... where are the hundred million Xp users not faithfully buying Xboxes? maybe burned one too many times? Even rabid Xbox fans have trouble getting the tv portion to work correctly or having to prepay for credits that are in odd number lots.
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March 24, 2007 at 11:46am

Eric Gruber
As one of those Mac faithful, I won't be buying this device. Apple is turning into Microsoft. As Microsoft strangled users to use IE an Windows Media DRM'd crap, Apple is doing the same with the Apple TV and the iTunes Store. I'm so disappointed in Apple. But there is hope for the consumer. As Firefox brought choice back to the internet (as least for browsing), Sling Media has much better options - for less - than Apple's pathetic DRM box.
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March 24, 2007 at 2:50pm

Travis
Think about what ITunes and the IPod have done to the music industry? The AppleTV seems like a nice gadget, but it is probably a little expensive for what it does. But, I wonder whether that is the play. If Apple can expand their offerings of movies available for purchase the AppleTV could be a substantial success. Why rent a DVD for $5 when you could buy it for $10. If Apple could come up with DRM that the major studios would trust then you'll see the AppleTV and ITunes do to the movie rental business what the IPod did to the music business. If I were Netflix or Blockbuster I would be getting a little nervous.
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March 26, 2007 at 12:11am

Jasyn Jones
Travis: "As one of those Mac faithful, I won't be buying this device. Apple is turning into Microsoft...Apple's pathetic DRM box." Troll or astroturf? Either way, you're just wrong. Apple TV plays videos from iTunes. The program. Not just the media store. They're different things, kemosabe. Media store = DRM. iTunes program = lots of .MOV files, from anywhere on the planet (like my extensive Red vs. Blue collection). AppleTV plays non-DRM'd videos, so long as you've added them to your iTunes library. BTW, this is a terribly laborious process which takes 1 menu command and 2-3 minutes of time. "Apple is Microsoft." Yeah, right.
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March 26, 2007 at 11:36am

Xavier
Apple is totally becoming like Microsoft. This device seems over-priced just as the I-Phone does. Apple seems to be treading on that line of "jack of all trades...master of none." I love my iPod...but does that mean I love everything Apple does? I love my Xbox 360....but does that mean I love everything Microsft does? It seems to me there are way too many fan-bois around these parts.
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