Apple Playing Catch-up in Internet Television Race
Apple Playing Catch-up in
Internet Television Race
Though Apple has historically led
the pack in many tech areas, they are lagging behind in the
race to put internet content for TV into US living
rooms.
The company originally entered the market in 2007 with a small box called the Apple TV which brought iTunes movies to televisions, but the hardware was too expensive and cumbersome to achieve any real success. Now the company has released a revamped version of the box, which will sell for just $99. The product represents Apple's attempts to catch up with competitors in the market, but does have several unique features that set it apart.
The company originally entered the market in 2007 with a small box called the Apple TV which brought iTunes movies to televisions, but the hardware was too expensive and cumbersome to achieve any real success. Now the company has released a revamped version of the box, which will sell for just $99. The product represents Apple's attempts to catch up with competitors in the market, but does have several unique features that set it apart.
Apple TV is a small, black box that
comes with a remote. The box connects to the telvision in
your living room either directly or through a receiver. The
box's software sends a computer-style interface on the
screen, which users will navigate with the remote. The box
can be connected to the web via a wireless signal or directly
into a router with an ethernet cable. Once the box is online,
users can use it to rent movies or television shows from
Apple. Netflix subscribers can also use the system to access
their content.
In terms of both setup and
operation, the new Apple TV is less complex than the older
version, which was more like a computer, containing its own
hard drive. It was designed to first download content from
iTunes or a computer, and then play it back. The new system,
however, uses streaming technology to acquire content and
play it at the same time. This means that there is no hard
drive, making the device smaller and lighter, and saving
users from having to worry about storage space.
One complaint from potential buyers
is that when they rent a movie, they only have access to it
for 24 hours, so if a user can't watch it in one day, they
would have to cough up the rental price again to finish it.
Many working parents find watching an entire movie in one
sitting quite difficult.
This limitation has very little to
do with Apple TV itself, and more to do with restrictions
placed by content providers. The only progress made on the
issue in the last several years is that users now have 48
hours to view television shows after they rent them. The
ridiculous part is that most TV shows, which we have 48 hours
to view, are half or a quarter of the length of motion
pictures, which we have 24 hours to watch.
The Apple TV does, however, offer a
very cheap way to watch feature films. With a subscription to
Netflix (as little as $9 per month), you can view as much of
their content through Apple TV as you want. Streaming Netflix
movies onto a television screen is not new, however, as a
small company called Roku introduced a box two years ago that
could essentially do the same thing. The box was sold for
$100 with no monthly service charge to pay. The Netflix
service has since been introduced to a handful of Blue-Ray
players and video game consoles, and several televisions have
been introduced that can access Netflix by
themselves.
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