Apple Confirms One Million Apple TV Units Sold

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Apple is being rather quiet about this chunk of news, for reasons that baffle me. They’ve managed to sell their one millionth unit of Apple TV, which is no small feat, and since it only took them about three months, the question remains: why isn’t Apple saying much about this?

There are several factors at once working here: Apple TV managed to sell that one million units in three months, as we projected earlier. Roku’s rival set-top box, meanwhile, is still working on making those kinds of numbers, at last report, but it should manage to make those numbers by the end of the year. Credit seems to be going to AirPlay streaming, better iOS support and a lowered price tag.

Apple, for its part, regards the set-top box concept as a “hobby”, which might go some way toward explaining why they don’t particularly care how well it sold. But this stance makes precious little sense; more than a few are already projecting that the next big format war will be waged on the internet, via streaming video (and considering all the players involved, like Netflix, Hulu, Vudu, YouTube, and more besides, it looks like it could be a pretty nasty format war indeed), why would Apple be so blase about making big sales in rapid fashion of what amounts to the next tank in the format war?

Selling a million of anything in three months is a big deal, even for Apple…but they don’t care. Is Apple missing a trick? Maybe they think that computers are more versatile than set-top boxes (which they are, but they’re also much more expensive)–possibilities are substantial here either way.

No matter what Apple’s thinking, it scarcely distracts from the key concept, that they sold a huge amount of Apple TV units in a short amount of time, an achievement for anyone. Kudos to Apple, and who knows what’s next?