Apple CEO Steve Jobs is Not Impressed with Apple TV
October 23, 2008
Steve Jobs is not impressed with Apple TV and he doesn’t think the gadget will gain any popularity in the coming year. Apple TV was hailed one of the top 10 worst gadgets by Popular Mechanics Magazine, and even Apple’s co-founder, Steve Wozniak, dismissed the product as lame in an interview he gave to Australian reporters in March.
On Tuesday, Jobs announced financial results for Apple’s fiscal 2008 fourth quarter ended September 27, 2008. He also talked about Apple TV.
After posting revenue of $7.9 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.14 billion, the company’s earnings forecast is looking particularly troubling with CEO Steve Jobs conceding he doesn’t know “how this economic downturn will effect Apple.” Jobs said Apple TV was just an experiment, but he stopped short of admitting that the product was a failure.
“I think the whole category is still a hobby right now. I don’t think anybody has succeeded at it and actually the experimentation has slowed down,” he said. “A lot of the early companies that were trying things have faded away, so I’d have to say that given the economic conditions, given the venture capital outlooks and stuff, I continue to believe it will be a hobby in 2009.”
He is correct. A new report titled “Apple’s Play for the Living Room” from Research and Markets, found that the sales of Apple TV will remain well below 12 million units even through 2011 - a much more modest growth than that experienced by the iPod.
I would buy the Apple TV in a heartbeat if they had a Non-HD componenet to it. Not everyone is HD ready or has an HD TV. So, to leave out that component you are narrowing the already narrow target audience. Yes, you can buy adapters to go from HDMI to coaxial or RCA but really, who wants to spend $200 on an Apple TV and then have to first of all FIND that adapter on some obscure website and then pay $50-100 for it. Nope…..Thats why people are passing on the Apple TV.
Agreed. I don’t own an HD TV nor am I in the market for one (there’s nothing wrong with my current TV) and that’s why I didn’t buy Apple TV either.