Posts Tagged ‘Apple TV’

Apple is rumored to be bringing out a Smart TV shortly. TVs are both one of the most popular consumer products and one of the most difficult to be successful at doing. The latter is exemplified by failed efforts from Dell, Gateway, HP, and Pioneer, all of which tried and failed at selling TVs. One of the most memorable moments was when then CEO of HP, Carly Fiorina, got up and gave a speech on how her HP was never going to bring out a me-too product right before announcing HP’s TVs, which really weren’t different than other products in market.

It appears as if our long-term prediction that Apple will sell Apple-branded TVs sooner or later would, in fact, become reality, as an Apple job posting indicated that the company is looking for engineers working on standalone TVs. That may have been, however, wishful thinking and the established range of TV makers may have reason to take a deep breath.

It appears that Steve Jobs Apple TV hobby has finally turned into a business. The company said that the $99 stuffed hockey puck will be selling 1 million unit sales this week. So when do we get a real Apple TV – a real TV?

The Apple TV rarely has been more than a foot note in Apple’s business, but that could change soon as the device is getting much more interesting thanks to a jailbreak.

It is nothing short of stunning how quickly Google was able to build momentum around its Google TV platform, which is arguably the first attempt at uniting the tech, consumer electronics and content industry in one happy Web TV family. There are countless beneficiaries. Especially Intel and Sony may benefit from this platform and score a homerun against Apple.

Google today announced its first content partners for its TV platform and released a website dedicated to its new service. It is apparent that Google has looked at the failures in the past, corrected mistakes and is integrating itself even deeper into your life. If Apple watches, it may learn a thing or two.

Steve Jobs’ hobby, the Apple TV, could soon be much more interesting. A well-known Apple jailbreak team are turning the device into their hobby as well and announced that they have already decrypted its keys. Maybe that is all that is needed to make the hockey-puck sized set top box more successful than its predecessor.

Apple is in a pricing battle with its content providers again. It just can’t seem to convince everyone that $0.99 is the right price for television rentals on the new Apple TV, and I can’t say I blame media for putting up a fight. This is the same problem Apple had with the music industry as the iPod and iTunes grew to dominate the industry, but this time around Apple is only a small player in the media business.

Do we ever get tired of new iPods? Apple has announced a plethora of new products earlier today, ranging from a new iPod Shuffle, iPod Nano and iPod Touch, to a new Apple TV, a new iTunes with a new logo, a social network, and two new iOS versions. There was no shortage of news, but, for the first time in years, we wonder whether Apple may have announced the wrong products at the wrong time. In fact, we believe that Apple has exposed itself, and missed to upgrade its products effectively, which gives its rivals a chance to take a shot and challenge Apple’s leadership in key markets.

Late May is always Apple rumor time. What we know is that Apple will turn WWDC on June 7 into the “center of the app universe.” We know there will be a new iPhone, we even know how it will look like, and we know that there will be something else that won’t leave us “disappointed”. That is what Steve Jobs supposedly wrote in an email. According to Engadget, this “something else” may be a new version of the odd Apple TV device, which apparently will morph into another set-top box. We are sure there may have been reasons why this new Apple TV may be a new standalone device. But isn’t it time for Apple to build its own integrated TV? A TV that connects the iPod, iPhone, iPad and any Mac you may have in your household? If that is the case, then it is the A4 CPU that ties everything together and Apple goes after an entirely new target: Sony.