Steve Jobs: Apple TV Still A Hobby Through 2009
Oct 21st, 2008 | By James Lewin | Category: Internet TV, Video 
While there was lots of good news for Apple fans in today’s Q4 earnings call, but there was also some news that people don’t want to hear: that Apple TV was going to keep on its road to nowhere for the near future.Â
“I think the whole category is still a hobby right now,” Jobs said, in response to an analysts question about Apple TV. “I don’t think anyone has succeeded at it, and the experimentation has even slowed down lately. Some of the people who were doing some things in that area have sort of faded away.”
“Given the economic conditions and the VC funding outlook, I think it will continue to be a hobby in 2009,” added Jobs.
Let’s just hope that by “hobby,” Steve really means “hacker’s plaything.” And that an Apple TV hack that doesn’t require a Mac will arrive soon…
They need to open this up like the iPHone – image the stuff that people would come up with then.
Hobby or no, as long as they still support it I’m happy. The AppleTV has joined the TiVo as a must-have device for us. It’s slowly replacing the DVD player because it doesn’t have disks that can be lost, smudged, or broken, and everything is easily backed up on the computer.
I have to agree with Susanna. AppleTV is nearly a must-have for us. I think the ability to show iPhoto and your iTunes-shared movies (including our home videos from iMovie) on your HD-TV is the kind of thing that complements a home-theater. It’s a great device, but I’m not sure Apple does a very good job of marketing it…. once people see it running at our house, they want one.