Apple, under Steve Jobs, has always been the master of timing, bringing products out right at the cusp of technological maturity. The iPod and iPhone are perfect examples of this. When the technology made sense for a product that people would want to use, and not a moment before, Apple released something amazing. There were MP3 Players before the iPod and smartphones before the iPhone, but when Apple delivered the products, it changed the game. Apple hasn’t really had the same experience with AppleTV. While there are many compelling reasons to get one, it isn’t a “must have”. Yet. Perhaps if Apple innovated up the value chain making some heavy duty equipment with the ability to play videos (please Apple, acknowledge other file formats besides .mp4 and .mov) from a media server. Or just put a 1Tb drive in the AppleTV model of the HDTV and a H.264 encoder and let me have my way with my media library. Lots of possibilities here. From C|Net: TVs are a huge market. What better way to extend the iTunes Store than by providing an elegant TV that seamlessly integrates with its movie and TV offerings? Apple Computer Inc dropped the ‘Computer’ for a reason, and I have no reason to doubt that this has been on the roadmap ever since. Or is Calcanis just doing Apple rumors to satisfy his need to be like Kevin Rose (See Netscape vs. Digg)
