The Roku Player for < 50 is only 720p not 1080p, so its $50 less, but it comes with far more content and works just fine. If you want the 1080p its $20 cheaper. The point being its CHEAPER, its a COMMODITY ITEM.
Apple has the apple interface, but that’s it, its got fewer channels, and doesn’t really do anything remarkable or more than products out there. I just don’t see this being more than a fanboy toy, I really don’t. For the same $100 you pay for the ATV, you get a roku player just as powerful, and with an motion control sensor and games preloaded. etc etc..
I just don’t see how apple becomes the “IT” product in this space, I’m sure it would love for a cable carrier to brand its boxes etc.. but I just don’t see it. Are you really going to ditch your cable carrier for another because that one has the APPLE TV and yours has some other brand? Not hardly.
Apple’s making money on this thing, some anyway, and selling a few, but its not in anyway 5 years after launch a game changer.. and doubt it will ever be. Face it, Apple itself calls this a HOBBY... so that doesn’t bode well for this product itself to be much more than what it currently is.
Now that doesn’t mean Apple won’t take lessons from this and eventually introduce something that is a game changer in this space, but ATV as it stands sure as hell ain’t it, or likely to ever be it.
Apple MOVED the market in music and cell phones, it moved it out of the gate, ATV is just another product with an apple logo on it, it is not and likely never will be a market mover.
*shrug*
We’ll see. While the ATV still holds on to “hobby” status, a lot of the rumor mill suggests that this year (or early next year) will be the real push into the living room via some form of TV-based system. If that does happen, we’ll see what tricks Apple has up its sleeve then.