While you said the iPod was "the best hardware", there was the other major aspect of it's success. iTunes. That program helped make it trivial as you said to rip and encode a CD, along with eliminating the need to manage files. Users simply ripped a CD, then plugged in an iPod. Syncing ensured they had their music. This is Apple's approach, try and sell a complete solution, not just pieces of it. The iPod would have never shipped from Apple had they not also had iTunes (or in the case of the initial Windows version, the 3rd party solution they used for a bit).

The other aspect that helped is that iTunes came with the iPod. For our crowd, searching for, finding, and possibly registering shareware is also trivial. It was more difficult for the average consumer though, especially in an era with malware concerns.


This setup with the computer tethered to the AppleTV is the old vision Apple had, where the computer sits at the center of the "digital hub". In a pure Apple setup, with an Apple TV somewhere on the network or a router, Wake on Demand can at least allow some power savings, since the Mini could sit asleep. Not ideal, but better then being on 100% of the time.

Moving forward though, Apple has no way of bringing in users own content if it happens to be a DVD, thanks to the DMCA blocking a potential iTunes ripping like solution. Sure, we all can go grab Handbrake, but Apple can't ship it unless they want to be sued out of existence. (*Edit, relevant Ars story about a vendor bending over backwards to try and meet licensing requirements, and still losing a lawsuit) So their only other solution is to try and sell people on buying the content directly from Apple in a digital form. Music they were able to offer that ripping bridge before people switched to digitally acquiring new music. That digital content is still "yours", but the burden of having to maintain it in random files on your drive is slowly being removed.

Home videos are a little clunky right now, because there is no iCloud syncing of them, yet. iCloud in Apple's mind is what is replacing the older "digital hub" and it's still a work in progress. The current "Apple" way is to share your home videos out somewhere. In the past this was via MobileMe, and they also currently support YouTube and Vimeo. If you sign in to an account, then AppleTV will show your files, including the private ones. I know, it's not the most ideal, and I'm not trying to defend it, simply explain it from the perspective of Apple.


Interesting that a statement of "we think 720p is fine today" said in the past is turned into Apple somehow saying 1080p was stupid. Yes, Apple has engaged in misdirection in the past, but I can't recall them ever insulting higher resolution. Apple is, and has been for a long time a highly conservative company. They aren't going to move onto something until they feel they can offer it in a great way. Sure, the A4 processor in the initial AppleTV could play back a certain file at 1080p. It however couldn't play back a 1080p file at a reasonable bit rate, while also maintaining a reasonable file size that could be downloaded or streamed over a common broadband connection. The newer A5 has a hardware decoder capable of handling more complex H.264 algorithms, thus they can offer 1080p with a reasonable quality without bloating the file size too much. Ars has a great rundown on this.

Cost is also a factor. Sure, they could have shiped an AppleTV earlier capable of 1080p, but the cost would have been higher, when people still whine about current Apple prices. Add in AVI and MKV support with who knows what codec involved, and you now also move towards needing a dedicated general purpose CPU. Something that both increases the cost more, and makes the device consume more power. Apple preferred to go the route where they could offer a small $99 brick that at full tilt, uses less power then some devices in standby mode while still providing content people could be happy with.