Does Apple have a chair yet?
- January 16th, 2008
- 2 Comments
Steve Jobs right after the iPhone’s launch in June:
We’ve got two strong legs on our chair today — we have the Mac business, which is a $10 billion business, and music, our iPod and iTunes business, which is $10 billion. We hope the iPhone is the third leg on our chair, and maybe one day Apple TV will be the fourth leg.
With four million sold and an SDK on the way, the iPhone has turned out well for Jobs and Co.
What of the fourth leg, Apple TV? Does Apple have a chair yet?
It might. Compared to Take 1, Apple TV Take 2 actually does something. Take 1, I think I can say, sorta stunk: it was nothing more than a wireless bridge from your computer to your TV. With enough cable, you could have easily accomplished the same task. Take 2, now $70 cheaper, may well become that One set-top-box pundits have been predicting for some time now; it may may hasten the end of the HD format war. Good.
Obviously the improved iTunes Store, complete with movie rentals from all the major studios, is key to Take 2’s success. Apple only needs to be weary of other companies pulling what NBC Universal did, launching some silly Web site in a huff because they don’t get “their” slice of the action (and neither do the striking writers, by the way), leaving it with no content to sell. (The Xbox Live Marketplace notwithstanding, the Xbox 360 is still looked at as a video game console. Don’t be surprised to see Microsoft pumping up its multimedia capabilities even more now, though.)
So maybe Apple doesn’t have a Corbusier chair just yet; maybe it’s only an Ikea “just moved out of the house” chair. But, compared to last summer, the chair looks a hell of a lot sturdier.
Cosmic (Who am I?)
7 months ago
Nope, no chair yet - just a stool. I agree that the Apple TV update makes it better, but I still think it’s a fairly useless product. Is it really worth over $200 to buy a box that lets you rent movies? Doesn’t that seem a little backwards - that the company that make portable digital music truly possible is now selling a box that does little more than frees us from walking to the mailbox?
Tivo has been the real revolutionary set-top box, and Tivo + Unbox / etc is a much better 4th chair leg than Apple TV. And Microsoft’s Media Center completely blows it out of the water: I’ve had the ability to rent movie downloads — which my ass on the couch and only a remote in my hands — for a while now thanks to my HTPC. Apple TV is sleeker than a desktop, but until it catches up to Media Center, it’s not getting any space in my living room.
BAGAGT1 (Who am I?)
7 months ago
I’m not certain Apple has 3 legs to stand on much less 4. The iPhone is a great product, but it’s only the first release, and the competition isn’t standing still. Time will tell how well the iPhone can competeCertainly the Apple TV is an improved product, but unless it can act as a DVR, I wouldn’t buy one. The Media Center PC/Xbox 360/Media Center Extender would be a better fit in most homes as a lot of homes already have Windows PC’s, and a lot of 360’s out there also. If Microsoft can lower the price of the extenders to under $200 they might have a winner. I also disagree that the XBox 360 is still looked at as a Video Game Console, the same could be said of the PS3 but the fact is a lot of Blue-Ray Discs are being sold on account of the PS3.