Dismissing the Apple TV Objections

For any other company the Apple TV would be considered a hit. The device is undoubtedly profitable and sales have been just fine. Yet, compared to the home runs Apple has hit with some of its other products, the Apple TV is the product that always makes it to first base but rarely scores.

Keep that in mind as we take a tour of the objections to the Apple TV.

Objection 1:

The Apple TV only does 720P

This is true and in a world where specs are king, you'd think it would a valid objection. After all, a biggish selling point for the iPhone and iPod touch is the Retina Display.

But hold on a second, you are pretty close to your iPhone and iPod touch so shouldn't we take into account the distance you are from your TV? This can get a little convoluted, to properly calculate the distance of maximum benefit you'd need to know your vision (corrected if you wear lenses) and your current distance from the TV.

We'll just assume you have 20/20 vision and go from there. Now to calculate how far you should sit from your TV from maximum 1080p enjoyment. That number is 1.8 multiplied by your screen size. Hence, if you're rocking a 42 inch 1080p rig you need to sit a maximum of 76 inches away from your set. That's 6 feet four inches. There's a good chance you're sitting farther away than that and if you are you would be just as well off with a 720p set up.

We can kind of forget about the 720p objection for anyone except hardcore videophiles because for anyone but those people, the vast majority of HDTV owners, it just doesn't make a difference.

Objection 2:

"There's no hard drive, I don't want to leave my Mac running just to watch movies!"

Since there is no storage on the Apple TV if you want to watch a movie you have two choices: rent it or stream it. Renting it seems crazy if you already have it ripped into your Mac but leaving your Mac on just watch a movie seems less than optimal.

Pointing out that the Mac uses relatively little power while sleeping is pointless if you're one of those people who religiously shuts down their computer. You shut it down for a reason and you like it that way. What is more compelling is to think about how most people watch movies. Most adults don't watch the same movie over and over (kids are a different case). No matter how much you like Better Off Dead or Kung Fu Hustle when you get a couple of hours free you probably don't want to watch the same movie again. It isn't that you don't love the movie, it's just that your time is limited. The viewing habits of adults makes storage a non issue, as long as the Apple TV starts playing something from the iTunes store in a snappy manner most users will be satisfied.

Objection 3:

"I want my Apple TV to work just like my iPod!"

If ripping all your media worked for the iPod why won't it work for the Apple TV? It seems to make perfect sense so why can't you just slap a DVD in your Apple TV and have the thing be auto ripped and stored in your library?

The first problem with this idea is that it is illegal. Apple couldn't do it even if the company truly desired to do so. The second problem is that, even if the company could do it legally, it makes no sense. The viewing habits of adults has already been mentioned but it is worth rethinking the habits once again. When you rip a DVD it takes a serious amount of time. On a decent iMac you're probably looking at an hour or more. In an hour, while you're ripping the movie, you could watch most of it. And once you've seen it once you probably won't want to see it again. In essence, you're asking people to tie up their hardware for two and a half hours to watch a 90 minute movie.

At this point, the media whores are going to jump in. They are going to argue that they want their whole library, all eighty gajillion gigabytes of it at their fingertips at any particular moment. They never know when they want to listen to some obscure song or watch an episode of some incredibly lame TV show. These are the people who proudly brag about the size of their iTunes library, like it means anything except that they have a lot of unwatched, unlistened to media.

Nothing is quite so satisfying as scrolling through a friend's full 160 GB iPod classic and asking them if they've ever listened to "Red Pepper Flakes" by the Cleveland Steamers. Of course the answer is no. There's just not enough time in the day to listen to all the songs they own but they know a song costs .99 cents and a movie costs a ten spot so their collection is the equivalent of a digital wallet that's always full but can't be spent (sounds like one of those wish fulfillments an evil genie would hit you with). Trying to tell these folks that the rest of the world sees no value in things they don't use is like trying to tell a hoarder that those pizza boxes they are saving will never be turned into amusing puppets.

Objection 4:

"It should browse the internet!!OMG!!"

Really? This is a problem? You've got a laptop, a desktop, a smartphone, an iPad and you still think you need another, worse, way to browse the web? Bad news, the Apple TV doesn't cut grass either.

The objections noted by Steve Jobs

There are objections, and there are reasoned objections. Steve outlined the objections Apple was familiar with (and could do something about) at the last media event. The list is as so:

• Hollywood movies & TV Shows
• Everything in HD
• Lower prices for content
• Don't want a computer
• Don't want to manage storage
• Don't want syncing
• Silent, cool & small

Let's run through the list really quickly. People want Hollywood movies and TV shows. That seems like a lock, the biggest complaint about the current Apple TV is lack of content. For example, if you want to watch Iron Man you have to buy it. Even though you know you're only going to watch it once. The lower prices thing is a total no brainer. When was the last time you remember someone saying "I would've bought it but it was just too cheap?"

Everything in HD

People want this because they've been beat over the head with the idea. The truth is that sometimes HD helps and sometimes it is wasted. Is Futurama any better in HD than SD? Of course not, that is a dialogue driven show. Dances with Wolves is infinitely better in HD than SD, sweeping vistas and all. Waterworld is yet another case. (That movie is best watched with the picture turned off and the sound set at zero, but you don't need an Apple TV to do that.)

Don't want a computer

This one is a lie. People definitely want a computer, they just don't want (yet) another computer. It's a frickin TV, you use it to turn your brain off, so you want something truly easy to use. People want it to work like their TV already works. Instant on, instant show. Seamless would've been a more accurate term.

Don't want to manage storage and
Don't want syncing

These two are the same thing as not wanting a computer. Here's how people are used to using a TV. They turn it on, they watch TV. Asking people to do anything more than that better have a pretty good payoff.

Silent, cool & small

This one is a complete lie but it is reflective of the complaints about the current Apple TV. It does run hot. It is a bit large when you've got a bunch of other stuff crammed under your TV. But these are excuses about why people don't love the Apple TV and not the real reason the Apple TV isn't in every living room in the land.

Look at Steve's list of objections again. Now try to find something on the list that cable or the Dish network can't do. Herein lies the true rub with the Apple TV. It doesn't do anything better. It is the same problem Steve cited with netbooks. Sure, they are smaller but are they really better than a full size laptop? Not really, they don't do anything better, they are just smaller. Apple thought about this and came up with the iPad.

If the Apple TV is ever going to be as big as the iPod or iPhone it is going to have to beat cable. This isn't impossible. All the content in the world is already on the 'net (check out TVShows of or CastTV) but getting that content onto the Apple TV in a seamless manner is not a real possibility with the current laws. If it were the Apple TV would already be bigger than the iPod and you can be sure of this because you've never heard anyone say: "I love my cable company."