Apple Turns To Users For Apple TV Direction

Amid a plethora of suggestions how Apple can make better use of its Apple TV box, the Cupertino, Calif.-based company has turned to its users for possible directions.

As part of an online survey, Apple is asking how owners use their Apple TV boxes, including the preferred source for content and their hardware configuration.

The survey’s purpose is seen as a way to determine the company’s next step in turning what initially was viewed as a “hobby” device into the third leg of Apple’s sales strategy.

In an effort to learn about Apple TV owners’ content choices, the company asks what percent of material was purchased through iTunes or elsewhere, such as your own DVD collection or the Internet.

Since it’s inception, Apple TV has been rather limited to purchasing video through the iTunes Store.

“That might change if the company could convince labels to allow iTunes to rip DVDs…,” according to Apple Insider. Any movement on the part of Hollywood has been stymied by licensing and technology hurdles.

Another question asks what sort of display and other video devices are used in the same household. The question follows talk that Apple TV could be repositioned as an entertainment hub or even as a way to replace your cable DVR. Still other analysts, such as Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster have speculated Apple may be preparing to sell television sets.

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All of the renewed focus on Apple TV coincides with Apple’s recent remark that Apple TV sales tripled during the December quarter, compared to the same period in 2007.

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Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.

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Phil
survey is now inactive
Justin
The survey link is now inactive. There is a TON I wish they would change on the next ATV. Starting with more memory and better GPU so to provide 1080P support. I do not think the addition of a DVD drive is a smart choice because in my opinion optical is dying fast. Look at all of the streaming media from netflix, hulu, and the like.
thelottery
I actually think a dvd drive attachment would be brilliant. We all have dvds. And we don’t all want to convert all our dvds to 1+gig digital files. I’d love to get rid of my dvd player, however… and adding a slim drive onto Apple TV could allow me to do just that. Add it the ability to rip dvds directly to Apple TV and I think I’d cry. (In a good way.)
For me, the most needed addition to Apple TV is the ability to rent/subscribe to tv shows. I don’t want to necessarily own all my tv shows. Once they’re watched, they’re watched. (I own The Office, and that’s it.) If Apple could get the studios to play nicey-nice with an a la carte subscription model that makes sense, I’d gladly dump my digital cable in a heartbeat.