Steve Jobs Is Abandoning the Geeks

Apple TV a boring product for mainstream users
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 2, 2010 1:15 PM CDT
Steve Jobs Is Abandoning the Geeks
An Apple employee holds a new Apple TV device, Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010, during a news conference in San Francisco.   (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

Apparently Steve Jobs has no use for geeks anymore, because Apple TV is your mom’s digital TV product, writes Brian Ries for the Daily Beast. Typically, Apple releases a pricey version of a product first, builds buzz, and then drops the price to let the mainstream in on the fun. Not this time. At $99, it’s priced to go wide. Jobs boasted that it wasn’t “amateur hour” either; it was designed to play Hollywood content. “Just like the average Joe Consumer likes it,” Ries observes.

The product has no apps, no third-party development support. Consumers “don’t want a computer on their TV,” Jobs said. Matt Burns of Crunch Gear agrees it's good for parents, not pirates. If you get your content through torrents, you’ll have to look elsewhere. Apple TV is the simplest imaginable way to get On Demand content on your TV legally, however. “Personally I find the new Apple TV boring,” says Burns, “but I’ll admit it’s not for me.” (More Apple TV stories.)

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