I know, but taxes can wait until I at least get this little rant off my chest. 😯
As you may, or may not know, Apple is launching some new products this week – tomorrow to be precise. And the rumour mill is running wild on what the new products will be. The fact is Apple NEVER tells until they are up on stage.
The odds are good that there may be a new iPad, a new iPhone and a new Apple TV. That is logical, based on the age of the previous products and technology advances since their release.
But what I want to rant about is the Apple TV, or to be more precise, I want to rant about what all the pundits out there are saying about it! It all comes from what Steve said, as quoted in his biography ( a great read by the way ) written by Isaacson:
“‘I’d like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use,’ he told me. ‘It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud.’ No longer would users have to fiddle with complex remotes for DVD players and cable channels. ‘It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it.'”
For starters I already have an Apple TV, and it works GREAT! I think, based on what Steve Jobs said, that the next version of it may very well be amazing! But I think that I can pretty well guarantee that the next version of the Apple TV WILL NOT have a TV Screen!
It boggles my mind how everyone is saying that Apple will be making TV’s! No!! Why would Apple even want to get into that mess! LCD LED Plasma 3D etc etc etc… They don’t have to!
Let me explain…
This isn’t a scientific fact, but I would hazard a guess that over 90% of modern TVs out there are already being used with another box, be it a cable, satellite, or internet box.All the screen is is a display or monitor for “the box”.
When you change providers all you have to do is change the Box! Right now I have a Satellite, Apple TV, WDTV, DVD player, DVD player, DVD recorder all connected to a great little Sharp LCD display and thanks to my current Apple TV I’m thinking of cancelling my expensive Satellite feed!
Apple’s new TV will be a BOX, just like it’s predecessor. Now Apple “might” make an extra large monitor/screen available to use with it, but it’s box WILL work with 99% of the current TV’s out there now! That’s where the market is. All TV’s these days come with multiple inputs, the new Apple TV will just connect like all the other boxes, there is no reason to make a screen for it! Why should they, you already have a screen!
Why would they make a full TV (with screen) that might take you 10 years to decide to buy and what technology will be out by then that may take you away. Apple wants to see you buying their TV NOW and to do that it will be a box that you can connect to your current TV.
I’m excited, really excited, because once this new Apple TV arrives, I believe it will change the way TV watching works today.
Let me explain… I don’t have a large commitment to my current Satellite service, I only buy the “essential” services, but it still costs me over $70 a month! I watch next to none of the hundreds of channels that they make available, before my Satellite I had cable, which was even more expensive with even more channels that I DID NOT WANT or WATCH!
The common complaint for most subscribers to these services is that they want to be able to pick JUST the channels they want to watch, they don’t want all the other stuff that’s out there! I think Apple TV, especially the new one coming out, is going to change all that…
On the current Apple TV you can subscribe not to channels but to SHOWS! Not only that, but you purchase them, once you have paid for them, you own them and can watch them again and again.
I’ve done the math, and if we just paid for the the shows we watch now, on the Apple TV we watch now, we could cut our current TV viewing costs down from over $70 a month to something like $35 a month! AND NOT MISS A THING! I won’t even need a PVR/Recorder/Whatever because when the show becomes available I’ll have it. If I hear about a new show I didn’t know about I can buy it and INSTANTLY have all the previous seasons episodes – I won’t miss another thing EVER!
If some, or even none, of the rumours out there come true about what the Apple TV will offer in it’s next release, there will be a revolution in TV viewing. The fact is, it’s already here and the big TV cable/satellite providers don’t even realize it! Oh and it doesn’t come attached to a screen it’ll just be a little black box…
I guarantee it! 😀
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