Don’t panic! Apple TV delayed, but it’s coming soon
By John Pospisil
Apple’s recently announced media-streaming set-top box, Apple TV, has been delayed until mid March. The Apple TV had been schedule to ship in February, but since it is now the end of February, and there’s no Apple TV, the announcement comes as little surprise.
“Wrapping up Apple TV is taking a few weeks longer than we projected. We now expect shipments to begin mid-March,” said Apple spokesperson, Lynn Fox.
The Apple TV was announced at MacWorld in January. Selling for $US299, the set-top box will allow digital content to be streamed from any Mac or PC running iTunes to a high-definition widescreen TV. The Apple TV will be powered by a 1 GHz Intel Pentium-M “Crofton” Processor and come with 256 MB of SDRAM and a 50 GB hard disk that will be able to store 50 hours of video.
When Apple CEO Steve Jobs first previewed the Apple TV at the Yerba Buena Centre for the Arts in San Francisco last September, he described the opportunity for the Apple TV as follows:
“You can take a movie, download it to a computer, and put it on your iPod. But what about that big flat screen TV you just bought last weekend? You need a box to drive that big screen TV. How’s the box going to talk to the computer? Do I want to string cables throughout my house? So I’m going to talk to it using wireless network, to get the content from the computer to the box, from the box to the TV.“
While other devices exist that can do this (I have a D-Link DSM-320 hooked up to my TV, for example), Apple is betting that with its profile and marketing nous, it will be able to make Apple TV a mainstream consumer product.
After all, the company has already done the same thing with media players (ie the iPod).
I’ve long thought that there is a gap in the market for a device such as the Apple TV. Many people do download content from the Internet, but many mainstream consumers aren’t aware that media-streaming set-top boxes exist that allow you to watch that content on a regular television.
I won’t be surprised if Apple’s cool, sexy Apple TV brings online content to the lounge rooms of the masses.
Related:
Entry was posted
on Tuesday, February 27th, 2007 at 2:43 pm
under
Read more entries by John Pospisil.
Stumble It!
February 27th, 2007
I think the Apple TV is going to be huge: Apple has great timing for these things.
February 27th, 2007
I agree; I wish I had an HDTV to stream to! I can’t wait for the keynote presentation this spring for Leopard!
March 1st, 2007
While AppleTV MAY be huge, just a quick question. Why is the tone of coverage for Apple so incredibly different than EVERY other organization in the industry? The launch of AppleTV has been a disaster from every standpoint, Apple blew their very successful strategy of announcing when they are ready to launch. Second, it is a product which copies the sort of services available in a variety of Linux and Microsoft technologies that have been available for years (how, precisely is that innovation?). Lastly, it has been delayed. Keep in mind, this is Apple we are talking about. They NEVER delay products. Given all this, why the “don’t panic, it’s coming note to coverage.” Just think if M$ had said the same thing. I am all for M$ hating, but… there should be some consistency.