We knew it was coming, and we knew most of the details. But it’s still intriguing to see what Steve Jobs and co. have come up with for the newly-redesigned Apple TV. It’s small, cheap, and built purely for streaming from the cloud.

Apple TV

It’s fair to say the Apple TV didn’t exactly fly off the shelves when it was first launched. After some good early buzz, as there is with any new Apple product, the Apple TV was designated nothing more than a hobby. Which implied Jobs had accepted defeat.

It’s hard to put a finger on why the original Apple TV failed. It was definitely too expensive, and maybe the mainstream market just wasn’t ready for a set-top box able to stream and download video content.

Apple is hoping things have changed now, however, and that the new Apple TV will take off in a big way.

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The good news is that Apple is pushing to secure a 99-cent price for individual episodes of shows for its customers. The bad news is that to do so it’s had to abandon plans for a monthly eat-all-you-can subscription offering. Shame.

iTV, iPad, iPhone

Apple is one of the companies best positioned to take advantage of the move to online and streaming video. Not only does it lead the way with its iTunes service, it also has a range of products on the market, or about to hit the market, able to deliver video.

Apple’s three mobile devices, the iPad, the iPhone, and the iPod Touch are all capable of streaming high quality video. The iPad in particular is a device designed with the delivery of content in mind.

Meanwhile, the Apple TV is all but dead, with the iTV set to replace it. This will be cheap, cheerful, and designed for the mainstream. Giving it a good chance of succeeding.

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The past week has seen intense speculation as to whether a leak regarding Apple’s plans for the underwhelming and under-performing Apple TV is real or not. Could it really be renamed iTV and priced at just $99?

Apple TV

Apple is unused to having failures on its hands these days, but that is, sadly, what the Apple TV has turned out to be. After the initial buzz in 2006/2007, the Apple TV never quite managed to take off, meaning Apple’s mission to control the living room has so far failed.

Apple has since started referring to the Apple TV as nothing more than “a hobby,” which is just a way of writing off its failure. But Apple doesn’t give up easily, and is highly likely to be about to reboot the product in order to try and find its place in the market.

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Apple has been treating Apple TV as a hobby since it failed to take off after launch. But that could all be about the change, with rumors that Apple is about to reboot the product in a big way.

If true, this is setting up an almighty battle with Google TV. Which should be fun to watch.

Apple TV

Steve Jobs first announced Apple TV back in September 2006, and at that point in time the company supposed it was going to have another huge hit on its hands. But it hasn’t turned out that way, with Apple’s success in computing and mobile devices not seeping through to the living room.

By 2008 Apple was publicly referring to Apple TV as nothing more than a hobby, and the device has remained that way ever since.

However, the last month or so has seen new rumors surfacing that Apple is about the reboot the project, and with so much speculation, and from so many sources, floating around, this would seem to have some weight.

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More people than ever may be using the Internet as a means of watching television and video, but is there yet a need, or indeed a demand, for a set-top box? Steve Jobs doesn’t think so, and as head of Apple, he should know.

The Internet Option

The Internet as a destination for viewing video content, be it a short, user-generated clip on YouTube, a full-length television episode on Hulu, or a movie purchased from Netflix, has never been more popular.

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To make it easier to watch movies on the AppleTV, Apple today announced a new software update for the devices which will add support for the new iTunes Movie Rental store.

In addition, pricing on the AppleTV has been lowered, with systems set to be released in two weeks with the new software available for $229 (40GB) and $329 (160GB).

The Apple TV set-top box was originally intended to make it easier for anyone to transfer media files from their PC to their television.

This is an idea that seems to have been wholly accepted by consumers, although some users still experience problems due to the interface.

Current owners of an Apple TV need not worry about purchasing new hardware, as the company has mentioned that it will provide the new software free of charge to existing owners. 

A slip up by Apple in the latest version of iTunes indicates a movie rental service on the horizon. Mac developer David Watanabe was quick to notice this Freudian Slip and uploaded a screenshot of an iTunes System Error which requests a refund for non-delivery of rental movies.

Other errors which point out to an Apple Movie Rental service include; accidental purchase, poor content quality, duplicate purchase, wrong version and bad metadata. As expected Apple for now is staying mum on the whole issue.

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