Written by Chris Albrecht
Posted Monday, July 21, 2008 at 4:52 PM PT

Apple TV Still a “Hobby”

When asked about the Apple TV on its earnings call today, Apple said “The Apple TV remains a hobby as we call it,” according to VentureBeat.

Uhhh, I don’t want to should you, Apple — but it’s high time you moved your set-top foray from red-headed stepchild to full-fledged member of the family. Aren’t two attempts with the product enough to make it more than a passing fancy?

We know you’re only forecast to move 18.25 million paid movie downloads this year, but with Netflix and now Amazon becoming viable competitors (andSony bound to come on strong), calling your product a “hobby” doesn’t really instill confidence in consumers with other, more affordable options.

Perhaps there is a grand plan and this is part of that “future product transition” you also mentioned on the call today. It had better be something, because the future of TV distribution won’t be a hobbyist market.

Image courtesy of iTunes.

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Topic: Distribution

Comments (1)

They should make it part of the iPod range in name too. A name like iPod Home or iPod Pro would do wonders…people might figure out what the hell it is. With such a name they could market it’s audio features alone! How many of us want to play our digital music in the home. That’s more than a hobby market…

tb0001 — 8:10 PM on July 21, 2008 Reply

Linkbacks (2)

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