Apple TV Already Flying Off Virtual Shelves

Apple’s stock may have taken a digger today based on its disappointing outlook, but there were still a couple bright pieces of news relating to digital media.

While there are no actual Apple TVs to ship or stock on shelves, that hasn’t stopped it from being the fastest-selling item at the online store since pre-orders became available earlier this month, according to an Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray, quoted in this CNN story on Apple’s quarterly earnings report.

Another analyst, Shaw Wu of American Technology Research, chimes in:

People are looking for ways to share this content. If Apple were to convert 1 percent of those iPod owners to Apple TV owners, it would be a success. That would be a million units.

Based on the news that Apple will be opening up their Fairplay DRM to ‘Made for iPod’ licensees, like Netgear’s Digital Entertainer HD, this could not only help Apple’s bottom line in hardware sales in the short term, but solidify the iTunes store’s position as the uncontested leader in selling and delivering content. The content producers, who want Fairplay more restrictive, may end up with no choice but Apple.