Apple: Apple TV Still A Hobby

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Apple is frequently asked about the possibility of an Apple TV during it’s conference calls. I think it’s an interesting product that has all the financial analysts mesmerized and they’re waiting for Steve Jobs to pull out the super-popular Apple TV at a keynote. Well, regardless, Apple’s COO Tim Cook reiterated the line that it’s “just a hobby”.

When Cook repeated the “just a hobby” line, he pressed by the analysts as to what that meant. Cook explained that while computers are an industry-wide 300 million unit per year business, MP3 players are a 100 million unit per year business and mobile phones are a 1,200 million unit per year business. So, by those standards, we can take away that the digital set-top market (Apple TV, ASUS O!Play, etc.) are all way to small.

Cook went to say that Apple calls the product a “hobby” because they’re not taking it too seriously at the time. I seem to recall Steve Jobs calling it the future of television during the product reveal (which it probably is – and products like it) and it was highly hyped by Apple at the time – and now they’re downplaying it. TechCrunch says that this is done so Apple can deflect any ideas that the Apple TV was a failure on the scale of the iPhone (has in, “Oh, it’s OK guys. We only sold 500,000 Apple TVs, but it’s just a hobbyist device so we don’t mind.”)

Probably one of the most interesting comments, Cook admitted that he and others at Apple use and love the Apple TV. “A number of us love the product, and use the product. We continue to think there’s something interesting there,” Cook said.

The Apple TV is currently shipping from Apple with 160GB of storage for $229.