Boy, you gotta love “analysts” (hmmm…starts with “anal”—go figure.) Seems that some lovely ANALysts are signing death warrants for Apple TV already. Even the well-respected ArsTechnica jumped on the Bandwagon o’ Doom. Ok peops, crack pipes down. Test over. You failed. Here’s why…
(But first a word from our Sponsor. I own Apple stock. Far from a dripping fanboy. I like making money. They made me a lot. Deal with it.)
Since when does Apple have to have a blockbuster hit for a product to be successful? They offer a $300 box that sells about 500,000 in its first year. No advertising. No promotion. Hmm…if you do the math, assuming a paltry 20% profit margin, they added about $30,ooo,ooo dollars in profit to an already phat bottom line. A Beyonce’-sized bottom line, knamean?
I think the guys over at RoughlyDrafted have it right. Apple already owns the video download market with a 91% total share in TV shows and movie downloads, this after being in the market less than 2 years. But what few folks have mentioned is this: Apple is on such a roll right now, they clearly have bigger plans for the Apple TV. Why would they even offer a product that depends on paid downloads only for content? Even with their market position, they can’t change the fact that people don’t want to buy movies as much as they want to rent them. So, will they start doing this? Time will tell. But in the meantime, they continue to add to the $15 billion dollar pile of dead prezidentz under their mattress. God I love money.
this is a test of the emergency holla-back system. this is only a test. beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.
Once AppleTV can replace my TiVo (which would be VERY tough since, as my nephew would say, “if you love your TiVo that much, why don’t you marry it?”) and then some, then maybe I would buy one. Holding out for consumer devices to catch up to been-there-done-that technology.
See, that’s where I think Apple shouldn’t go. DVRs are a bad business with little control. Trust me on that
No reason to try to out-do TiVO on a money loser. Most of these peops who get an AppleTV already have a need for a media extender, or rip a lot of movies (me!). Without rentals, no one will buy that much content to justify an AppleTV.