Dan Frommer: ‘Here’s Why Apple’s TV Needs to Be an Actual Television, and Not Just a Cheap Add-on Box’

Dan Frommer:

Right now, the Apple TV box is aiming for “input 2” on your TV — most people still reserve “input 1” for their cable or satellite box. (Believe it or not, the average American still watches more than 5 hours of TV per day.) If you have a game console, maybe Apple TV is even input 3 or 4 — if your TV even has that many hi-def inputs. This was smart on Apple’s part, because for most TV watchers, today’s Apple TV box is still only a part-time solution.

But long-term, Apple probably wants its TV platform to be “input zero.”

To play devil’s advocate, what about all the people who’ve bought a nice new TV in the past, say, four years? Would Apple be willing to simply write all those people off? Maybe, insofar as they’d be getting into the TV set business for the long haul — willing to wait for whenever you are in the market for a new set. Tricky marketing problem, really.

★ Thursday, 27 October 2011