MacNN | Apple TV selling for razor-thin margins?

MacNN | Apple TV selling for razor-thin margins?

"The Apple TV may be selling near break even or potentially at a loss, according to a new study by iSuppli. A breakdown of the stanard 40GB media hub's component costs suggests that a finished device costs $237 to produce; this leaves just $62, or less than 21 percent, of the selling price to be recouped by Apple. However, the figure is said to omit the necessary marketing costs for the device, suggesting that the actual revenue per device is either slim or may actually incur a slight loss."

I don't know that I buy iSuppli's #s, do they appropriately factor in Apple's bulk discounts? But Steve Jobs said at the D Conference that AppleTV is a hobby, whereas computers, iPods, and soon phones are businesses. Is that a tacit admission that it isn't working out as well as they wanted it to? Or merely that they recognize the market isn't ready to go big with this kind of tech and approach?

Why Apple TV is a dud - Fortune

Why Apple TV is a dud - June 11, 2007

He's got some good points:
-while requiring (not quite, but pretty much) an HDTV, you can't get HD content
-the only HD content most of us have is pictures, and those can only come from one machine
-no volume control
-screensaver is "coolest feature"
-can't order movie/TV show/song directly from the device, gotta do that through another computer
-no DVD drive

He wonders if iPhone may similarly be not as cool as we'd hoped - fair point.

-mike

UPDATE: very interesting that Steve Jobs recently said that Apple currently has two core businesses (iPods & Macs), is about to add a third (phones), and then they have a hobby (AppleTV) - I read that as a statement that AppleTV isn't working out as well as they'd hoped, and they are distancing themselves a bit from it in case it continues to not work out. Drat.

Ten Myths of the Apple TV

Ten Myths of the Apple TV: 5.1 Audio

Oooh, this is GOOD and well researched (for the most part).

He spends so much time on 5.1 audio (Myth #1), tha the breaks 2-10 into separate post.

AFAIK, he scores one miss - stating that AppleTV can work with regular 4:3 aspect TVs over component connections. This is only half correct - it DOES plug in, an image DOES show up, the device DOES display movies etc...but in the wrong aspect ratio. 4:3 content shows up too skinny and pillarboxed, etc.

Macworld: First Look: Hacking Apple TV

Macworld: First Look: Hacking Apple TV

Good overview of the available hacks & mods. New stuff:

Interesting discoveries
Like the iPod, the Apple TV%u2014specifically, its included Apple Remote%u2014has special button combinations for accessing various %u201Chidden%u201D features. For example, pressing Menu and Up ( ) simultaneously, for approximately six seconds, will cycle through possible display resolutions. Even more interesting, pressing Menu and Down (-) will bring up the Apple TV Recovery screen, which gives you options to Restart, Run Diagnostics, or perform a Factory Restore. (The latter tells me that one of the Apple TV%u2019s hard drive partitions%u2014the drive has several%u2014contains a copy of OS X and the Apple TV software; restoring the unit restores the Apple TV, from this partition, to an out-of-the-box configuration.)

It also turns out that, Apple%u2019s statement notwithstanding, connecting a keyboard to the Apple TV%u2019s USB port does do something. Specifically, you can boot the Apple TV into single-user mode by holding down Command S at startup%u2014you can%u2019t do much from there, but it%u2019s still interesting%u2014and you can enable Verbose startup mode by holding down Command V at startup."


Also includes list and links of the known hacks and summaries of progress on some of the forums like AwkwardTV and Something Awful (and how did the SA guys become the Go To place for this topic? Not their usual genre it would seem!).

-mike

MacNN | MS counters Apple: Xbox 360 Elite, HD films

MacNN | MS counters Apple: Xbox 360 Elite, HD films:

Microsoft on Wednesday launched its own counter to Apple's new set-top device and iTunes with its new HDMI-enabled Xbox 360 Elite game console and new HD content offerings on Xbox LIVE--"

-HD movies from Paramount and Warner Brothers (Apple's only SD)

Net Xbox 360's new features:
-it is black
-black wireless controller and headset
-HDMI output (regular unit only has component connections)
-Xbox LIVE market adds TV series & movies from A&E, ADV Films, National Geographic, & TotalVid.com
-there was already 1500 hours of content available

Read on for more specifics of what content is available in movies and TV shows.

-mike

Apples and Oranges Hands-On: Apple TV vs. TiVo Series3 HD - Gizmodo

Apples and Oranges Hands-On: Apple TV vs. TiVo Series3 HD - Gizmodo

They compare the features the two have in common - looking at pictures, surfing music, looking at downloaded content.

My favorite observation:

Both Unbox and the iTunes Store don't have enough movie and TV show content for our taste, and both can't deliver HDTV movies or TV shows. So in our mind, for now, they both suck.


They were fair in their analysis, no BS comparisons or sucker punches - in other words, I agree with their analysis.

:D

Fun little read, spot on in my book.

-mike

Why a $100 XBox can be better than the Apple TV

Why a $100 XBox can be better than the Apple TV

His argument boils down to pick up a used Xbox for $100, if you're technically inclined it can do more than a $300 AppleTV.

I counter that if you want a slick interface and easy setup and aren't super technical (but you probably are if you're reading this), then AppleTV is the way to go.

Folks will ALWAYS be able to suggest a roll-your-own approach that is less expensive, but the quality of the purchased option, and the value of your time, are oft overlooked, no offense to the author.

-mike