Opinion: An Open Letter To Steve Jobs — Fix Apple TV

Shane Lother ()

appletv_screens

The iPod. The iPhone. Apple TV.

One of these things is not like the other. I’ll give you one guess which one I’m talking about.

Since its inception, Apple TV has been little more than a half-baked idea that appeals only to a niche market. Even Steve Jobs says Apple TV is only “a hobby.”

For a company known for pumping out game-changing products, this is very out of character. Apple TV is great at what it does, but it could be so much more.

The Past & Present

Whether people know it or not, they want a computer in their living room.

And that’s what Apple TV needs to be – the computer of the living room.

I love iTunes. I love owning my music. I prefer this to a Zune-like subscription service. Where this á la carte purchase system doesn’t work is when it comes to watching movies and TV shows.

As a recent Netflix subscriber, I’m watching more movies then I ever have. For $9.00/month I get as many DVD rentals as I can make in a month (only 1 DVD out at a time) and unlimited streaming of some interesting (if not a bit random) content.

After a month or so of using Netflix, one thing is painfully obvious. Apple could/should be blowing these guys out of the water. But it’s hard to justify renting a couple new movies at $3.99 each from iTunes when for an additional dollar a month I can get a lot more.

Just as we’ve moved from VHS to DVDs & Blu-ray, we are slowly transitioning to digital downloads and streaming. I don’t think people even want to mess with downloading really. They’d rather just stream something on demand and not worry about running out of space on their hard drives.

The Future

The only way for Apple TV to become the one living room device to rule them all is to offer some sort of subscription based payment plan. iTunes has almost anything you could want to watch. The only problem is I don’t want to buy the 6th season of The Office for $40-$60 and have it sitting on my hard drive taking up lots of space. I’d rather just subscribe to a monthly service and have it available for streaming anytime.

That’s how you stick it to the cable and satellite companies

That’s how you compete with Netflix.

You make the iTunes store content available as a subscription. Maybe it doesn’t work with music, but it’ll work for video.

While we’re at it, let’s add a couple other features to this baby.

Number one – Safari. This thing needs a browser to make it the living room computer. And since it’s in the living room, why not pack even more entertainment into it? I’m talking about downloadable games. It would be like the App store meets Xbox Marketplace. Beautiful. Apple already has thousands of developers flocking to them to develop for the iPhone. Might as well harness that power and bring it to the Apple TV.

And how do we control all of this – the menus, surfing the web, the mini-games?

The Apple Remote? Not likely. A separate mouse and keyboard? That’s all I need, another controller.

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How about the over 40 million iPhones & iPod touches out there [or maybe some sort of tablet]?

A built-in keyboard and trackpad right in your pocket. Boom.

The Price

So how much for this earth-shattering device? What would you say to $99?

Talk about a competitively priced home theater gadget! Apple saves on cost by ditching the hard drive not required for people who just want to stream their content. This would just be the entry level version of course.

For an extra $79 you get yourself a built-in Blu-ray player. And maybe for a little bit more money you get yourself that 160GB hard drive you still want.

The Bottom Line

It’s time for Apple TV to no longer be just a hobby.
It’s time for Apple TV to replace the two or three other devices cluttering my home theater.
It’s time for Apple to step it up when it comes to home entertainment.
It’s time for Apple to do what they do best – shake things up.

Thinking differently, Shane.

30 comments »

About the author

Shane Lother Shane Lother is a 21-year-old senior at Greenville College in Greenville, IL, currently pursuing a degree in Studio Recording. He is a singer/songwriter and musician. He became heavily involved in Apple products in his freshman year while looking for a simple way to record music on his laptop. He stumbled across Garageband for these weird computers called Macs, and the rest is history.

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Posted in Apple, AppleTV, Opinions |

  • http://stacywebb.biz Stacy WEbb

    Apple TV is a great begining, I’ve had one since it came out. But I modded mine to allow boxee and hulu to run. I know Apple is in the business of making money, But with all the great free services (like Hulu) out there, I would like to see apple open up to them they way they have done YouTube and Flickr. If the Blu-Ray option was available I would buy a new one without a thought.

  • MJ Britt

    I actually purchased a MacMini to fill the void my AppleTV left. The ATV is great, I love it and use it to watch all my purchased content. The MacMini sits there with EyeTV connected to time shift my television and then in the background converts it and sends it to my iTunes library for me to enjoy in the ATV…

    They need to take the ATV interface and incorporate EyeTV, Hulu, DVD, etc… and then you would have 1 great product.

    Just my 2 cents

  • http://www.kazzmedia.com Kevin Cassidy

    could not have said it better myself

    as much as i’ve been wanting an apple tv, these are the reasons why i haven’t gotten around to it
    i’ve been spending more time watching movies on netflix and tv shows on hulu.com

    if apple were to do what this article describes, i would jump on it in a second

  • Kevin Harms

    Nice article. I agree, I would love to buy and AppleTV but its just too easy to download and use my WDTV to show it on TV. Would pay for the subscription idea, it would definately replace my cable.

    Maybe setup somelike like pay per series, where you can pick a series for $5.00/month or 3 Series for $9.00 and then you get your Office, Heroes and Big Bang Theory? Something like that.

  • Doug Jacobs

    I have 3 AppleTVs in my house. I have over 600 DVD (that I own) ripped and served up on my iMac. We absolutely love these things. Sure I would love to do more, maybe even get rid of my satellite TV, but for now, they do everything they promised to do. I have actually setup similar system in 4-5 friends houses, and they enjoy the same conveniences.

    My wife and kids don’t want or need to work a home theater PC to watch movies and TV. With our AppleTV my 5 and 6 yo can both turn it on, and pick their favorite TV shows or movies and watch them. Much easier than the 3 DVD changers I had in my last theater.

  • http://www.toxicspark.com Andrew Macdonald

    I for one would DEFINITELY like to see exactly what you have described in your article, and id happily pay $300 for it if it were to include a hard drive, dvd, browser etc.

    And the idea of controlling it via the iPhone is brilliant. And it could give people a reason to go out and buy an iPhone if they have bought Apple TV.

    Steve Jobs or anyone at Apple reading this, PLEASE MAKE IT HAPPEN!!! And since Shane Lother suggested the ideas, how about throwing him a few thousand dollars?

    Disclaimer: I dont know Shane, never spoken to him and not related to him, but he deserves some credit for his idea. lol

  • –mb

    Great idea, Jobs should take a look at this post, seriously.

  • FlyCasual

    As much as I completely agree with the sentiment, you’re kidding yourself if you think cable companies, movie/tv studios, etc. will let Apple TV replace the traditional cable model. If Apple could, I guarantee they would. Hell… it was just a short time ago when NBC pulled their content off iTunes entirely. Clearly we have a ways to go before the networks really understand the new world of digital media.

  • Harden Stuhl

    If only someone would do this at Apple. Alas.. they don’t seem to do anything until the whining gets extremely loud. I have said this for years – Apple should just buy Netflix. Heck they could call it Appleflicks.

  • Aphonic

    A-fucking-men.

  • GSP

    While I enthusiastically agree with most of your points, the hard reality of implementing most ofthis with the movie studios is almost certainly the reason ATV remains only a “hobby”. That said, I’d love to see Safari added. Too bad … I love my ATV.

  • KurtO

    With rumors about a Mac Mini refresh swirling about, it may be the case that they add a Blu-ray drive and HDMI output to the Mini. Such an update, coupled with the Air Mouse app for the iPhone/Touch would pretty much make the hardware part a reality. Then make a few tweaks to FrontRow to include browser/Hulu/Netflix/YouTube integration (Boxee, minus the geek factor), and you’re all set.

    Mind you, this is not a $99 solution, but I do not see the iTunes store carrying two different revenue models (streaming subscription for TV, download purchase for movies and music) at the same time, which would be required for a no HardDrive model to work.

  • Erick

    I have felt the same way concerning the AppleTV. A subscription model to access the wealth of things on iTunes would really propel the AppleTV – BUT here is where the problem lies…and it is not with Apple.

    Apple doesn’t own the media. And if you have paid attention at all in the last year or so the battle that has ensued between Apple and the Studios you would see that the person you need to be firing an open letter to is not Apple, it’s the various Studios that hold all the cards here. There have been countless articles of how the Studios are not yet ready to abandon DVD and had put a lot of stock in Blu-Ray, even though it has not taken off like they had hoped. For some reason they do not get the fact, fully supporting streaming and download services will replace that revenue stream – they just can’t let go. So they continue to drag their feet and create roadblocks to a full on adoption of this delivery method. Even with Netflix. As wonderful as the service is, there is little premium content available for streaming (New Releases, etc.). The studios have been approaching things like iTunes, Netflix, et al., more like On-Demand delivery then as it’s own delivery method. Notice the articles of how movies disappear from iTunes – that is due to agreements with cable providers.

    There is also this wild paranoia on their parts that if they give Apple too much, they will lose control of the situation much like the record labels have been crying about for the last couple of years. Since iTunes has become the largest distributor of music, the record companies have bitched they have no ability to bargain with Apple.

    Apple is primarily a hardware company. That is where they make the big bucks. The AppleTV is a game changer in the fact they, more then anyone, have the real solution in place. You can get your media on your computer, your TV and on the go with your mobile device. Apple would be happy to alter the iTunes service in ways that would help move more hardware devices. Unfortunately their solution has begun to look long in the tooth because the studios are not giving them full rein to setup the way the media is provided to everyone.

    Why? For the aforementioned reasons. The biggest one, I think, is the studios want to keep control of the situation and they refuse to see physical media as a dying breed. And they can keep justifying that as long as they keep a stranglehold on both iTunes and Netflix. Until the studios change their mindset you are never going to see this great all-in-one type device.

    And this doesn’t even cover the cable companies who, such as Comcast, actually own parts of some studios.

    So start targeting these letters, online petitions, etc to the real culprits of these roadblocks…..the studios.

  • Sean Peters

    Sounds nice, but technically speaking… how do you do streaming with no local storage at all? You need somewhere to spool up the buffered video – without buffering, your video would constantly be stuttering. I can’t imagine putting sufficient buffer in RAM, so it seems to me that at least a small hard drive would be required.

  • Adam

    The problem with this is that it’s US centric thinking. In some countries, there’s no Apple Store, and therefore no streaming. But they could still sell AppleTV – if it had a large enough hard disk to rip the movies to people already own. In my mind, the mindshift is all about moving the media from your laptop to the hub in the lounge. In fact, if AppleTV and TimeCapsule was the same thing, I think you’d have a device that could unlock more than just the US market. And, if Apple owns the lounge,, it gets even easier selling Macs…

  • Matt

    Some interesting ideas, but I don’t like using my iPhone as a remote. There’s no tactile feedback so you have to keep constantly looking up and down from the TV to your iPhone in order to see what you’re doing, which is annoying. Also it means you can’t control what’s on the TV whilst you’re typing a text or an email or making a phone call, which is no good.

  • Andy

    If Apple does this, I’d dump Cablevision.

  • gpindc

    Great ideas. I have an Apple TV and enjoy using it, though it’s limited. Often, I run an HDMI cable from the iMac to the living room HDTV to stream from Netflix or other Web content. It would be ideal if everything was in the Apple TV box–a browser, a subscription plan on iTunes, and use of my wireless keyboard and mouse would make the Apple TV convenient and more useful.

  • Shawn

    Great article. Thanks.

  • http://www.comcast-deals.info/ Comcast Cable Deals

    Apple is primarily a hardware company. That is where they make the big bucks. The AppleTV is a game changer in the fact they, more then anyone, have the real solution in place. You can get your media on your computer, your TV and on the go with your mobile device. Apple would be happy to alter the iTunes service in ways that would help move more hardware devices. Unfortunately their solution has begun to look long in the tooth because the studios are not giving them full rein to setup the way the media is provided to everyone.

  • http://www.taxicast.com djtipps

    Amazon has a pretty good “Video on Demand” service that streams directly to Tivo and other devices… it’s good as far as it goes. The selection is limited by draconian license restrictions (you can purchase or rent past seasons of “The West Wing” but not “Num3ers”) and you miss the easter eggs available on DVD. I love all my Mac gear but find that Tivo is so far ahead in this area that Apple TV could only play catch up. There is also a free program that downloads Tivo content to ITunes – excluding Amazon downloads (of course).

  • John

    You’re right but most of the blame resides with the corporations that control the content. Rule #1: It’s the content. Rule #2: Refer to rule #1.

    The studios are struggling to avoid the CD debacle of the last decade while figuring out a way to preserve an income stream from their valuable content. They are not going to take risks. They are not going to make this move easily. Most of the executives in the decision-making position likely do not own an iPod, do not surf the web, and get most of their news from dead trees. It is likely they will suffer just as the CD content owners did. We (the consumers) will suffer too.

    I just don’t see a way to change this situation. Clearly Jobs and others are trying but they are hitting a brick wall.

    Stay tuned. It will change. It may not change to benefit the consumer initially but eventually it will.

  • Travis

    Let’s not forget some things it does do well now…

    Photos. This is how we show all our visitors our wedding album

    Music. This is our morning music, and our party music, hooked into our surround sound system.

    That said, I totally agree it could do more. I’d like to see it become a centerpiece with AT&T U-Verse, taking over DVR and rental duties.

    And, with gaming, using the iPhone as a controller, it could do very well

  • greg

    PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE don’t ditch the hard drive and go to streaming. if i were a 21 year old college student that might be great but i am a 45 year old guy who has a nice home theater and the last thing i want is even lower quality than ATV gives me now. we already use it only for TV shows and still fiddle with bluray for movies because i hate the soft looking image from ATV for anything serious.

    4 things to make ATV dominate:
    – subscription based pricing like netflix. could have limits like only 3 downloads on the drive at a time or something.
    – 1080P video to compare to bluray or vudu
    – access to recent TV content like hulu as a part of the service.
    – a ATSC video tuner for OTA

    for these 4 things you could charge $70-90 per month. i could drop directv and cancel netflix and come out money ahead.

    greg

  • http://topsecret Jason

    Next apple TV is in the Video chip of the current ipod touch. It has HD video out capability.. Just waiting to activate it, and then you can dock your current ipod or next gen iphone to your TV. (the current iphone doesn’t have this chip) Its all part of the huge software update that Steve mentioned was coming next year. App store will work on the TV through the 3rd gen ipod touch / 4th gen iphone. A little pointer will be sold that controls the screen in 3 dimensions like the wii, but apple style with just one button. The goal was to use the apple tv to get the software developed and the content relationships as well as wait for the technology to develop to where this could all be performed in the body of the ipod. Why bring out a new product to compete in the living room when you already have one that has sold 100 million units and has the capability to be used in more places thanks to moore’s law. The tech is available and it naturally makes sense. They’ll retire the Apple TV (after another year) to be replaced with an HDMI dock for the Ipod touch and iphone that comes out in June 2010.

  • hater

    god the appletv tv is such a painful device. its only good if u hack it, and when u do its so buggy and slow, aaauugh god i can’t believe i still persist with this piece of shit.

    and for £220??? for a 160GB hdd?? are they having a fucking laugh? id rather the extra £30 on a device that has a proper CPU in it, a blu-ray drive, and plays the odd game if u want. any one reading this thinking of getting an appletv, please please please i beg of u, dont put urself through the pain

  • Nicholas

    you know what a really bright idea would be…… how about making apple tv live up to its name by making it a physical tv…..great idea from a 12 year old…..

  • Fonce Falooda

    I think someone from Google must have read this last year. ;)

    You got your dream “Apple TV”, except that Google is making it. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37261531/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/

  • http://myoutdesk.com/ Virtual Assistants

    Great article . . Thanks for posting

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