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Thursday, January 11, 2007, 12:00 pm
First 100,000 Apple TVs to start shipping later this month - report
Inventec Appliances has won the role of original electronics manufacturer (OEM) for Apple's recently introduced Apple TV and will begin shipping the first batch later this month, a published report said Thursday.Taiwan-based DigiTimes cited industry sources in saying Apple's initial order for the set-top media device totals 100,000 units starting late January.
"Company sources at Inventec said Apple accounted for 70 percent of Inventec Appliances' sales in 2005 and 65 percent in 2006," the publication said.
"The sources said the company plans to reduce the proportion further in 2007 in order to lessen its reliance on a single customer."
It was previously reported that Apple would begin shipping Apple TV -- then known only by the moniker iTV -- in either late January or early February.
In premiering the digital media device at this week's Macworld Expo in San Francisco, Apple committed begin customer shipments "in February." It said customers can start placing pre-orders through its online store.
The $300 multimedia hub streams content over WiFi to big-screen televisions around the home and allows connections for up to five computers. It also includes a 40GB hard disk drive for some local storage.
As an Apple OEM, Inventec has largely been responsible for production of hard disk drive-based iPod digital music players. It declined to comment on the Apple TV report "citing customers confidentiality."
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Previous Comments View All
The "E" in OEM stand for "Equipment", not "Electronics."
I'm not one of these people who thinks a product is bad just because it's the one some ELSE wants and not me. So when I call this a niche product, don't take it as a flame. There's nothing wrong with that. My iPod Photo was a niche product once upon a time!
But AppleTV really does still strike me as one that only a few people would want. Which is great for those people, and probably is plenty to pay Apple for their R&D. But it's nothing like an iPod or iPhone that has instant appeal to a wide range of consumers.
iTunes can already stream from another Mac/PC, so a Mac Mini hooked to TV sounds better in just about every way: you get the same remote, only now it plays DVDs and CDs too, and you have every app/media player/tuner/PVR that you might want to add: you have a complete Mac platform. You even have on-screen Web and email (especially with Leopard's scalable UI). As for WiFi n, at the moment, my g seems sufficient for streaming everything from iTunes TV shows to movie trailers. And iTunes shows aren't HD (though of course that will happen one day). And when they are, AppleTV doesn't go as high res as some TVs--it only goes to 720p? (Not bad, but still, I enjoy 1080i HDTV sometimes.)
So AppleTV doesn't seem to do much that a Mini can't do already. Except it's cheaper! So it will have some market.
But you can already stream your audio to your stereo with much cheaper things, and there are RF remote controls to handle your skip and volume. You don't get your music listings on your TV, but that's not a feature most people really are clamoring for--not to the tune of $300. So AppleTV's main new thing is streaming of movies and TV bought from iTunes--which are sub-DVD quality (still very good--it's how I watch Galactica) and can be sent to TV with a cable anyway. Why replace that cheap cable with an AppleTV, when the cheap cable is probably fine for iTunes video quality? It makes sense in certain setups where a cable can't be run, but it's not like an iPod which nearly anyone can enjoy. (And in fact, an iPod is yet another way to get your music in your living room--it's what I do. And then I do have visual navigation, just not on the TV itself.)
So it seems like a really nice product... for a really small niche.
I can't help wondering what else Apple might have planned for it, though... and why they would be releasing it BEFORE it does anything else? With such hype, and a teaser pre-announcement? Apple seems to think it's bigger than I understand.
I keep expecting to see some article explain what I'm missing. Any thoughts? What will make this sell to a large market?
(I do think the USB port probably figures into Apple's unspoken plans. Be it for a tuner/PVR, additional storage, or pointing/game devices. USB2 is no Firewire but it can do a lot. Still, I wouldn't want to buy an AppleTV on that vague hope. Nor, if I were Apple, would I want to release the AppleTV before those other features arrive--if they truly ever do. And yet, here it is, with no real surprises since the teaser last year!)
I'm very much in agreement with your sentiments. You forgot to mention the fact that Apple made that niche even smaller by making the AppleTV only work with widescreen TV's. That leaves me out of the market unless I want to invest in a new TV (which I do, but not solely for this product; I'd love to start enjoy the full high-def potential of HD-DVD and Blu-Ray)
I hope there are some hidden features to the AppleTV, otherwise I'm content to keep hooking my iPod into my home theater to watch the limited selection of TV shows I buy on iTunes (which will probably be down to zero if/when I get Tivo) or watch them on my 20" iMac. The number of movies I expect to ever buy from iTunes will remain at zero so long as they don't offer the same features as DVD (5.1 sound, commentaries, bonus features, etc.). And I just bought the Airport Express so I can already stream music to my TV without the AppleTV.
As for the USB port, Apple may have thoughts of using it but whether they do or not remains up in the air. There have been plenty of electronics with additional ports that only rarely got used. Nintendo's game systems come to mind; several of them had additional connection ports that didn't get used (or at the very least never made it from Japan to North America). The DVR I had from one cable company had USB ports. Sites covering the box said one intention was to allow USB hard drives to be attached. I think it could also be used to read SD memory cards to upload photos to the machine. Whether or not Apple chooses to use the USB port for anything is in question.
So AppleTV doesn't seem to do much that a Mini can't do already. Except it's cheaper! So it will have some market.
Much like all of us with 80GB iPods wonder why anyone would buy a Nano when, for $50 more, they could get tons more storage and capabilities in an HD based iPod. "Surely it can't just be for joggers worried about messing up the hard drive, can it?"
As much as I'd prefer a dedidicated Mac mini for my just purchased Sharp Aquos 32" LCD HDTV, it's hard to justify $600 for one. I might as well spend a few hundred bucks more and get the HD TiVo. I love my TiVo, but since I got this HDTV, suddenly I am willing to give up TiVo for an HD solution that doesn't cost $800.
Currently, I'm thinking an Elgato EyeTV hybrid (w/Toast 8 for $150 right now, MacWorld special) and the Apple TV would be an okay bet. Downside, that a mini would solve: I probably can't be recording HDTV to my back bedroom iMac while I'm doing Final Cut Pro video editing or DVD encoding. Thus, a dedicated machine would make sense...
I'd also say "we're all going to have to replace our TV sets in a year or so anyway, or get a converter box" but since most people aren't like me (rabbit ear antenna and TiVo for free TV), having Cable or Satellite means you won't have to change a thing.
We'll see. If it just had a tuner, and TiVo-like capabilities (maybe with scheduling being part of .mac subscription)...
Completely agree with the above sentiments. This seems to be a product that doesn't really offer much, at a very high price point too! I don't really know of anybody who would need this product, who would want this product, or who would buy this product. This product will most likely be a flop for Apple.
I'm very much in agreement with your sentiments. You forgot to mention the fact that Apple made that niche even smaller by making the AppleTV only work with widescreen TV's. That leaves me out of the market unless I want to invest in a new TV (which I do, but not solely for this product; I'd love to start enjoy the full high-def potential of HD-DVD and Blu-Ray)
I hope there are some hidden features to the AppleTV, otherwise I'm content to keep hooking my iPod into my home theater to watch the limited selection of TV shows I buy on iTunes (which will probably be down to zero if/when I get Tivo) or watch them on my 20" iMac. The number of movies I expect to ever buy from iTunes will remain at zero so long as they don't offer the same features as DVD (5.1 sound, commentaries, bonus features, etc.). And I just bought the Airport Express so I can already stream music to my TV without the AppleTV.
I thought you just needed component video. I certainly hope so, cause I pre-orderd mine on tuesday.
Would a TV like this work? http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1099392081842
According to Apple's site, that brand isn't listed. But what's to stop it from working?
I'm in total agreement with nagromme about this device. I realize they created a special, very different, new embedded-type OS/Front Row combination, but honestly, I couldn't give a rat's a$$. The Mac Mini is much more appealing, but there's no DVD player in Apple TV because they don't want you to have a DVD player. Apple wants you to buy movies from iTS only. It's not realistic of them, but I can nearly guarantee that's why there's no DVD player in it. As far as I can tell, it's a more expensive version of Airport Express with the new "AirVideo" (I made that up and no, I don't think Apple will ever call it that). Seems like a very small niche indeed.
I wouldn't buy it right now because it will take at least standard DVD-quality video to get me to give up a real DVD player, even a Mac Mini as DVD player, in favor of streaming video from iTunes. iTunes can't rip a DVD so removing the DVD player from my entertainment system would make my existing DVD collection useless. I don't want that. I will require a dedicated DVD player of some kind until my DVDs can be ripped by iTunes for storage on a hard drive and accessed through iTunes for playback.
Would I like to have one? Sure, but there's no way I'd pay $300 for what little this thing does. A Mac Mini has replaced nearly every other component in my entertainment system. I have a receiver, a DirecTiVo, and Mini. If I had an Apple TV, I'd still need the Mini or I'd have to put a dedicated DVD player back in the mix. Why would I want to spend $300 to do that? It just makes no sense to/for me.
Hopefully, additional features will be announced. More likely, as is typical Apple style, the 1st generation device has about 1/20th of the features they have planned, but you'll have to re-buy to get any new features. (This style of Apple's is why the iPhone drops my jaw. I can't believe all of the features that little 1st generation baby has packed into it.)
I'm not one of these people who thinks a product is bad just because it's the one some ELSE wants and not me. So when I call this a niche product, don't take it as a flame. There's nothing wrong with that. My iPod Photo was a niche product once upon a time!
But AppleTV really does still strike me as one that only a few people would want. Which is great for those people, and probably is plenty to pay Apple for their R&D. But it's nothing like an iPod or iPhone that has instant appeal to a wide range of consumers.
iTunes can already stream from another Mac/PC, so a Mac Mini hooked to TV sounds better in just about every way: you get the same remote, only now it plays DVDs and CDs too, and you have every app/media player/tuner/PVR that you might want to add: you have a complete Mac platform. You even have on-screen Web and email (especially with Leopard's scalable UI). As for WiFi n, at the moment, my g seems sufficient for streaming everything from iTunes TV shows to movie trailers. And iTunes shows aren't HD (though of course that will happen one day). And when they are, AppleTV doesn't go as high res as some TVs--it only goes to 720p? (Not bad, but still, I enjoy 1080i HDTV sometimes.)
So AppleTV doesn't seem to do much that a Mini can't do already. Except it's cheaper! So it will have some market.
But you can already stream your audio to your stereo with much cheaper things, and there are RF remote controls to handle your skip and volume. You don't get your music listings on your TV, but that's not a feature most people really are clamoring for--not to the tune of $300. So AppleTV's main new thing is streaming of movies and TV bought from iTunes--which are sub-DVD quality (still very good--it's how I watch Galactica) and can be sent to TV with a cable anyway. Why replace that cheap cable with an AppleTV, when the cheap cable is probably fine for iTunes video quality? It makes sense in certain setups where a cable can't be run, but it's not like an iPod which nearly anyone can enjoy. (And in fact, an iPod is yet another way to get your music in your living room--it's what I do. And then I do have visual navigation, just not on the TV itself.)
So it seems like a really nice product... for a really small niche.
I can't help wondering what else Apple might have planned for it, though... and why they would be releasing it BEFORE it does anything else? With such hype, and a teaser pre-announcement? Apple seems to think it's bigger than I understand.
I keep expecting to see some article explain what I'm missing. Any thoughts? What will make this sell to a large market?
(I do think the USB port probably figures into Apple's unspoken plans. Be it for a tuner/PVR, additional storage, or pointing/game devices. USB2 is no Firewire but it can do a lot. Still, I wouldn't want to buy an AppleTV on that vague hope. Nor, if I were Apple, would I want to release the AppleTV before those other features arrive--if they truly ever do. And yet, here it is, with no real surprises since the teaser last year!)
I couldn't agree more. In fact, your observations are similar to mine back on Monday. In Canada, there are no available movies or TV shows available on iTunes which defeats (somewhat) the purpose of Apple TV up here. Short of ripping your own movies and syncing them (as well as music, photos...) to the Apple TV, its use is limited. I also don't own a widescreen TV and have no intention of purchasing one anytime soon (which is an apparent requirement). On that note, how many downloadable movies, shows and music videos are widescreen? On the other hand, a Mac mini will hook up to my present television, allow me to store any and all of my media locally (and still make it available to my office iMac), allow me full internet access, can replace my old DVD player and, if desired, I can literally take it elsewhere and use it as a computer where the necessary peripherals exist. It's more expensive, of course, but a more complete solution. Apple TV has potential but it won't be on my list of purchases for some time to come. I just wish that Apple would upgrade the Mini soon!
Personally, I don't think that you're missing much, if anything. I don't see it as a mass market product yet although that could change in the not so distant future. The original iPod was similar when it first debuted. A commonly expressed desire from what I've been hearing and reading is to include DVR functionality. As it stands now, however, I think its appeal will be mostly limited to higher tech American households as the rest of the world waits for their respective Apple offices to get in step with the mothership.
As for the USB2 port, it is listed on Apple's spec sheet as used for 'service and diagnostics'. I suppose that could change with a future incarnation of the product but it will probably mean nothing to the end user initially. I suppose we'll only know for sure after it ships and is put to the test.
Oh, and in case you all might be wondering, I too think this product appeals only to a niche. The reason I want one is primarily so that I can play iTunes through our stereo with control on the screen. I'm tired of using front row whenever I want a screen, and having to turn my laptop towards me to see. Then, if I want to get back on my computer at the same time I'm playing music I have to exit front row, and just use iTunes. It's a pain.
I also watch podcasts alot. Like MacBreak. I'd much rather watch them on a TV than my laptop. That way I can continue working on my computer at the same time I'm watching the podcasts.
Photos are another big reason. Whenever my family and I go on vacation we like to show off our photos, and we all end up crowding around the computer. It's very annoying.
As pointed out above, you could use a cable for all of this, and I used to have a DVI to RCA converter I would just plug in and then run a cable across the room to the entertainment center. But we changed our setup and that's harder to do now. And it was a pain having to set it up that way each time I wanted to show something from the computer.
And not only that I would have to run an AUDIO line over as well in addition to the video cable because quicktime doesn't work through air tunes (on our airport express). I bought Airfoil but it's no good if you're trying to use it on video, because of a delay.
The Mac mini solution is out for me as well. It could work for some people, but I don't want to store all my media on a computer across the room. I want it on my laptop! So I can use it too. That, and it's also too expensive to waste on a simple TV setup.
Agreed, agreed, agreed.
Apple could have made this product better by:
A) Allowing you to plug your iPod into it and play content off of that (think of going over to your friends house with your iPod and showing him the latest TV show or whatever) -- or wirelessly with the iPhone.
B) Having an interface to PURCHASE new shows/music via your TV. If the whole point of the device is to transfer control of your media to another room, shouldn't that extend through the whole pipeline?
C) 1080i at least. C'mon.
Those features alone, in my opinion, would have made the device more interesting.
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I'm not one of these people who thinks a product is bad just because it's the one some ELSE wants and not me. So when I call this a niche product, don't take it as a flame. There's nothing wrong with that. My iPod Photo was a niche product once upon a time!
But AppleTV really does still strike me as one that only a few people would want. Which is great for those people, and probably is plenty to pay Apple for their R&D. But it's nothing like an iPod or iPhone that has instant appeal to a wide range of consumers.
iTunes can already stream from another Mac/PC, so a Mac Mini hooked to TV sounds better in just about every way: you get the same remote, only now it plays DVDs and CDs too, and you have every app/media player/tuner/PVR that you might want to add: you have a complete Mac platform. You even have on-screen Web and email (especially with Leopard's scalable UI). As for WiFi n, at the moment, my g seems sufficient for streaming everything from iTunes TV shows to movie trailers. And iTunes shows aren't HD (though of course that will happen one day). And when they are, AppleTV doesn't go as high res as some TVs--it only goes to 720p? (Not bad, but still, I enjoy 1080i HDTV sometimes.)
So AppleTV doesn't seem to do much that a Mini can't do already. Except it's cheaper! So it will have some market.
But you can already stream your audio to your stereo with much cheaper things, and there are RF remote controls to handle your skip and volume. You don't get your music listings on your TV, but that's not a feature most people really are clamoring for--not to the tune of $300. So AppleTV's main new thing is streaming of movies and TV bought from iTunes--which are sub-DVD quality (still very good--it's how I watch Galactica) and can be sent to TV with a cable anyway. Why replace that cheap cable with an AppleTV, when the cheap cable is probably fine for iTunes video quality? It makes sense in certain setups where a cable can't be run, but it's not like an iPod which nearly anyone can enjoy. (And in fact, an iPod is yet another way to get your music in your living room--it's what I do. And then I do have visual navigation, just not on the TV itself.)
So it seems like a really nice product... for a really small niche.
I can't help wondering what else Apple might have planned for it, though... and why they would be releasing it BEFORE it does anything else? With such hype, and a teaser pre-announcement? Apple seems to think it's bigger than I understand.
I keep expecting to see some article explain what I'm missing. Any thoughts? What will make this sell to a large market?
(I do think the USB port probably figures into Apple's unspoken plans. Be it for a tuner/PVR, additional storage, or pointing/game devices. USB2 is no Firewire but it can do a lot. Still, I wouldn't want to buy an AppleTV on that vague hope. Nor, if I were Apple, would I want to release the AppleTV before those other features arrive--if they truly ever do. And yet, here it is, with no real surprises since the teaser last year!)