Analyst: Apple TV could take a third of set-top market
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Feb 21, 2007 at 12:50pm
Apple could take close to a third of the US$26 billion market for front room entertainment boxes “in a few years”, an analyst believes. As reported by Red Herring, Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitemore thinks the Apple TV could help Apple push current dominant players Sony and Microsoft aside in the set-top box market.
While giving Apple a major stake in the convergence market, such success could theoretically add up to US$7 billion to the company’s revenue, the analyst notes, Whitemore says. He also predicts first-year sales of two million when the product ships. Sales will take a boost from the estimated 40 million iPod and iTunes users worldwide, the analyst adds.
The Apple TV will provide a way to wirelessly play all your favorite iTunes content from your Mac or PC on your widescreen TV, including movies, TV shows, music, photos and podcasts. Using Apple TV’s new interface, anyone can quickly browse and view their entire collection of digital media from across the room using the Apple Remote, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said in January. Apple TV connects to almost all modern widescreen televisions, and is supposed to ship this month for $299.
“Apple TV is like a DVD player for the 21st century—you connect it to your entertainment system just like a DVD player, but it plays digital content you get from the Internet rather than DVDs you get from a physical store,” Jobs said. “Apple TV plays the same iTunes content that users enjoy on their computers and iPods, so now they can even watch part of a movie in their living room, and watch the rest later on their iPod.”
Apple TV has a 40GB hard drive to store up to 50 hours of video, 9,000 songs, 25,000 photos or a combination of each and is capable of delivering high-definition 720p output. It comes standard with HDMI, component video, analog and optical audio ports. Using high-speed AirPort 802.11 wireless networking, Apple TV can auto-sync content from one computer or stre
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Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
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