Apple Kills Off One Apple TV; Drops Price on the Other
Apple has decided to jettison the 40GB version of the Apple TV, leaving only the 160GB version. The latter originally sold for $329, but will now occupy the 40GB’s price point of $229.
Courtesy of Apple
This news isn’t altogether surprising, because 40GB hard drives are difficult to find these days. Most drive manufacturers no longer offer notebook-size drives, like the ones used in the Apple TV, in anything smaller than 80GB. At the upper end, the drives can be as large as 1TB. But it does seem odd that Apple didn’t take this opportunity to add a higher-capacity drive and maintain two options in the Apple TV lineup.
Two possibilities come to mind. Either Apple plans to add a higher-capacity model at a later date, most likely when it introduces the next generation of the Apple TV, or it’s in no hurry to qualify a new hard drive for the current model because it is not actively updating the product.
As I’ve said before, the Apple TV has the potential to be a winner if Apple would just put a bit more effort into it. Combine the Apple TV with iTunes and subscriptions to video content, and it could offer a new way of accessing TV and video at home. Toss in basic DVR capabilities and I think many Mac users would seriously consider adding an Apple TV to their home entertainment systems.
I believe they should have developed the Mac Mini into a full PVR unit, with HDMI out and component out. The Mac Mini is hands down more capable than the Apple TV, so I don’t know why instead of having two different products they didn’t juice up the Mac Mini and have this do all the functions of a PVR and computer combined.
The Mini is the way to go. Apple won’t make it a DVR because it might conflict with agreements to provide movies via itunes. So, you go to a supplier and add a box to a Mini, add an external HD and you have a DVR and so much more, and can download content from the internet too, in H.D.
It’s a whole lot easier right now to setup an Apple TV than a Mini but the problem is the size of drive. 160G is an ATA size, not a SATA size. If they fixed that, they would sell more in my view, heck I’d relegate my own 160G to the dust bin and buy a much larger one right now if they had one. I don’t know what the actual sales numbers are for this product but this ultimately may dictate what happens. Apple has not bent over backwards promoting this product right from day one and they should have. 70% of my clients have never even heard of it and 95% have never seen it in operation. There must have been some reason for this but we may never know. Any clients who I show this to, buy it immediately.