With this week ’s launch of Apple TV , Apple joins the disturbance of vendors colligate the television and PC . On Wednesday , Apple confirmed client reports that the set - top loge , which can wirelessly pull media subject off a computer and play it on a television set , is now shipping .
Apple TV can either stream content from PC linked to a home wireless or Ethernet connection or salt away that content on its 40 GB hard ride . Either way , exploiter can browse their networked digital medium aggregation with an Apple outside control , treating the Apple TV like “ a videodisk player for the Internet age , ” according to a statement by Philip Schiller , Apple ’s fourth-year vice president of worldwide product selling .
Computer seller have been try for years to converge the TV and the microcomputer , telling witness that a combined machine would empower them to interact with their favorite show , regard their personal media on a larger screen and browse the web while watching TV . Sony sell a convergence system based on its Vaio PC , while other PC seller utilise platforms based on Intel ’s Viiv or Advanced Micro Devices ’ AMD hot hardware parcel .
But consumer have been wary of polluting the reliable simplicity of their television Set with complex PCs that need frequent sustentation and take time to reboot up . And some substance providers do n’t trust digital - rightfulness direction system of rules enough to post their shows and movies on the Internet , as seen in Viacom ’s move on March 13 to file a $ 1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit against Google for playing Viacom shows on the video - share-out internet site YouTube .
Apple desire to vanquish those betting odds with a Leontyne Price of $ 299 and the simplicity of using its iTunes digital media library , made popular as the music store for the iPod portable euphony player .
However , that very simplicity may keep Apple TV from becoming a dominant ware like the iPod , one analyst said .
“ This is the first veridical terminal - to - end organisation , that has the cognitive content , the software to handle that content , and the hardware the fork out the content to the end regard platform , which is the telly , ” enounce James McQuivey , a principal psychoanalyst at Forrester Research . “ So in that sense , it ’s a watershed . But it ’s a landmark only to consecrate iTunes users . ”
Apple will probably attain its goal of sell 1 million Apple TV building block by the end - of - year vacation season , but the companionship ’s reliable challenge will be reaching out to consumers who are not iTunes user , he said . On top of that vault , Apple faces a determined competition in Microsoft , whose Xbox 360 gambling console costs about the same , has already betray 10 million units , and can also play motion-picture show as well as game .
“ This is an evolutionary numb end . Apple will make some money on it , but version two could be the real game - changer . Will there be a tuner in it ? Will it be a DVR ? ” McQuivey asked in reference to digital picture recorder .
Apple is now ship the Apple TV , which will crop with a high ( or enhanced)-definition widescreen television and either a Mac running Mac OS X 10.3.9 or afterwards or a microcomputer running Windows XP Home or Professional . The system also requires iTunes version 7.1 or later and an 802.11b / g / n wireless web using AirPort , AirPort Extreme or 10/100 Base - T Ethernet networking .
