I guess it’s all over except for the crying. Fortune Magazines Brent Schlender has declared the AppleTV to be a dud.
Why Apple TV is a dud – June 11, 2007:
Take Apple TV, the $300 set-top box that Jobs unveiled last October and that finally started shipping in at the end of February, several weeks late. You don’t see many ads for it on TV, even though Apple is blitzing the airwaves with iPod and iMac spots, and after living with one for the past few weeks, I think I see why. It’s just not very good.
Now I’ll readily agree that there is much room for improvement with the AppleTV. It’s not the everything media box that it’s being measure by. But to compare it to Microsoft’s Zune (later in the above post)…Ouch Brent, that hurts! :-)
It looks like Apple is taking some of these critical comments to heart. Apple, as of today, is offering a BTO (Build to Order) option of a 160Gb hard drive for $100 extra and have announced that some new software features will be rolled out mid-June including support for YouTube videos. No doubt this is part of the collaboration with Google, who owns YouTube, that was hinted of a while back.
Personally I’m really enjoying my unit, but maybe that’s due in part to the way I use it. First thing in the morning, with a hot cup of fresh coffee, I sit down in my favorite chair in the living room and switch the HDTV and AppleTV on to quickly check for any new Video Cast that I subscribe to on iTunes. If there are new ones I’ll either watch them then or make note to do so later. I also have been converting some of my video media to an AppleTV format and have enjoyed watching it using the AppleTV as well. I suspect that most of the actual owners of the unit are enjoying it. Robert Scoble says he loves his Apple TV:
That said, I love my AppleTV. If you actually get some high resolution stuff into iTunes it works really well. I watch tons of stuff on my AppleTV. Itâs just that folks who have a big HDTV screen expect a lot more than Appleâs delivering currently.
Robert’s correct in that high resolution video looks pretty good on the AppleTV.
So my opinion is, go ahead and talk badly of the AppleTV. It’s all good if it pushes Apple to make steady improvements to the unit. Plus, it gives all those Mac haters something to cheer about.
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