Back in early 2007, when MacWorld hosted the pre-release of Apple TV, I was extremely disappointed. This had nothing to do with my "love" for most things related to television, because back in 2007, I expected to see something better than the Apple TV. In fact, I considered this product so dull, that applying the Apple logo on such a thing looked like a blasphemy in my eyes. Even more, I wasn't the only one completely against this new product, but time managed to prove we were all wrong...
Despite the fact we only had one second version of the Apple TV, with a 160 GB hard drive so far, sales were extremely strong. In fact, this also took Apple by surprise, and now I think the time has come for a serious hardware upgrade. After all, 160 GB is far from being enough these days, and two years without any major hardware update is suicide for such a product in today's world.
According to acting chief executive Tim Cook, "there was a tremendous tickup year over year [for Apple TV]. In fact unit sales were up over 3 times vs the year-ago quarter. However let me be clear, we still consider this a hobby." A multi-million dollar hobby, that's cool.
Even more, Cook said "It Is clear the movie rental business is working and there are more customers who want to try it. We will continue to invest there, because we believe there is something there for us in the future," but concluded by saying that "given the venture capital outlook and stuff, I continue to believe that it will be a hobby in 2009."
So sales go up 3 times, and this is "a hobby." Blew me away with that one, I can assure you! If you have some piece of Apple TV around, please go ahead and enlighten me - does it look like a hobby to you? After seeing where the iPod is headed, I guess they should leave that one as a hobby, and take Apple TV seriously!
