Blu-Ray Apple TV

Apple TV has clearly not lived up to expectations, since Steve Jobs now refers to it as a "hobby". The product was always a little ahead of its time, in two respects. Firstly, it envisages a day when optical media (such as DVDs and CDs) are abandoned, despite the fact that Blu-Ray and HD DVDs are just now hitting shelves, and secondly, the iTunes Store does not yet offer a large enough range of movie downloads, and no high-def or rentals.

As a result, Apple TV is effectively a product in search of a market. In my view, the solution to this is clear - address early adopters with the best solution for a Blu-Ray player (better still if it can play both Blu-Ray and HD DVD formats, but since Apple's in the Blu-Ray camp, this is unlikely).

Right now, a lot of people are considering purchasing a high-def player, and for those who don't go for a Playstation 3, a Blu-Ray Apple TV could become the most popular choice.

Combined with an improved Apple Remote (see previous article) the one other enhancement that would broaden the potential market for Apple TV is a display. This would make it ideal for hooking up to audio systems to play music without the need to turn on a TV set to navigate menus.

A Blu-Ray drive and a display will inevitably push the price up, but could potentially turn this much-forgotten product into a smash hit. Naturally, at some point in the future, the optical drive can be dropped in favour of downloads again!

Apple Remote 2.0

The Apple Remote was introduced with the first upgrade to the iMac G5, which introduced Front Row. Since then, the tiny white plastic remote has been bundled with the entire Mac range, plus the Apple TV. You can even use it with the iPod Universal Dock, and the now defunct iPod HiFi.

When it was launched, Steve Jobs proudly compared it with competitor remotes, which contrasted with the Apple Remote's simplicity. The fact that all the functionality is distilled down into 6 buttons illustrated everything that Apple aimed to achieve in terms of design, Jobs said.

Having used the remote for over a year now, three things strike me:

1. It is very easy for non-techies to use. My parents, who are complete technophobes, love their Apple TV because it has the only Remote Control that they "get"
   
2. It is very clumsy for more sophisticated users - just a couple more buttons would solve a lot of problems
   
3. It is now out of step with the Apple's new aluminium design style
   

Points 2 and 3 indicate it's time of some enhancements, whilst point 1 indicates that Apple shouldn't lose site of what's great about the original.

So what should change in the Apple Remote 2.0?

1. Separate "Play/Pause" and "Select" buttons. This would enable you to pause playback wherever you are in the menu system. Pressing play (or double-clicking play?) would take you to the Now Playing screen. This also solves "Resume Playback" in DVDs - it's so frustrating if you're in the middle of a DVD movie, you press menu, and then you must press menu again and select "Resume Playback" to return to where you were in the movie.
2. Home would take you to the top menu wherever you are - to avoid the "back, back, back, back" clicks you currently have to do on the menu button to navigate around
3. Separate "Volume" from up and down controls, so that you can change volume when you are in the menus, or DVD menu (suggest volume control on left-side of the remote, similar to iPhone)

Adding these buttons doesn't make the remote unduly ugly, as this visual hopefully illustrates, albeit it becomes a 10 button remote, rather than a six button remote.

In terms of design, I suggest something like an elongated iPod Shuffle, but a bit larger and weightier. It would be nice if it came with a rechargeable battery and an optional charging dock.

Apple TV 2.0

January 2008 will mark the 1 year anniversary of Apple TV - Apple's fledgling line of set top boxes. But will it enjoy many happy returns? Right now, the chances don't look too good. Sales have apparently not been so great, and Steve Jobs himself even referred to Apple TV as a "hobby" in his interview with Walt Mossberg at D: All Things Digital earlier this year.

So it seems that Apple TV has not delivered all that Apple had hoped for. However, given the strategic importance of this product line for Apple, I think it's unlikely that they'll give up on it anytime soon. In fact, I think it's more likely that they will put their A-Team onto the product to try and sort it out.

Why hasn't the product been a hit? Several reasons I suspect:

• Lacks support for legacy TVs (only has HDMI and component video support)
• Expensive (it's probably a low-margin product from Apple's perspective, but $299 [£199] is still a lot for a set top box)
• Lack of rental product for movies
• Lack of choice on iTunes store (especially outside the US, where with the exception of the UK, there's nothing but music videos to purchase for video download)
• Lack of High Definition downloads
• Frustrating remote control (it looks great, and doubtless most remotes have too many buttons, but the Apple remote surely has too few)

I predict that Apple will make the following Apple TV announcements at MacWorld in January:

• New improved Apple Remote - larger, with more buttons (sure Steve Jobs loves the current one, but he loved the hockey-puck mouse back in the day, and he conceded defeat on that one too). This will probably come with all new Macs as well, and heck, why not sell it separately to the Apple fan-boys like myself who must have one 
• Price cut (even if this means they'll initially be selling them at a loss - after all, isn't that how games consoles are marketed?)
• New Movie Rental Service accessible directly from Apple TV (no need to use iTunes)
• Support for Composite video and SCART for legacy TVs
• Larger hard drives
• Dashboard (which you can configure in iTunes)
• Games (which you can buy from iTunes store. Apple may take a leaf out of Wii's book here, and come up with a special games controller)

Oh, and as a crowd-pleaser for existing Apple TV owners, all of the above will come as a free 2.0 software update, but will require the new remote to access the Movie Rental service and play the games. That's my guess anyway. We'll see in January.