Apple TV was introduced four years ago and Jobs admits it hasn’t been a huge hit. He claims after talking with customers they found out that people want movies and TV shows, in HD, for lower prices, without using their computer (to go to their TV). They don’t want to manage storage or sync, and also they want it silent, cool and small – and at their convenience.
Today they introduce the second generation of Apple TV, which is 1/4 of the size!
The main focus of Apple TV that Jobs discussed are:
- Ports on the smaller device include, power, HDMI, Ethernet & wifi
- Remote Control
- Use it for Music, TV shows, and all rentals
- Also from Netflix, YouTube, flickr, MobileMe and your computer
- $4.99 First run HD movies
- $2.99 was the HD TV show rental fee, this is now $0.99 (currently ABC & FOX)
- Stream content – not syncing the content
Jobs took the audience through the interface of the system which looks pretty clean and easy to use. There are reviews and viewing suggestions right in the AppleTV software. This looks like it may finally hit a few more customers – giving them the features that they want. I’ll admit it wasn’t a product I was initially interested in, but it looks like there is a lot of potential for renting what I want, when I want.
