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December 27, 2010: Nearly 4 months after the second-gen Apple TV’s debut, Cupertino says it has bought 1 million of the streaming video units.
The information reveals that Apple’s set-top field is gaining momentum. Nevertheless, Apple’s PR transfer can be a low-blow shot at competitor Roku, which not too long ago stated it deliberate to hit the 1 million unit mark by the top of 2010.
Apple TV gross sales
By 2010, the Apple TV had been round for 4 years. Cupertino confirmed off the first-generation mannequin in September 2006. Proper from the beginning, nonetheless, Apple described the machine as a piece in progress.
Most evaluations for the unique Apple TV have been middling. Nevertheless, some solid it as a notable misstep for Apple, with one reviewer going as far as labeling it “The iFlop.” In its first six months in the marketplace, the first-gen Apple TV bought simply 250,000 models.
The significantly smaller second-generation mannequin arrived in September 2010. Only a quarter the scale of the unique, it was the primary Apple TV to run a model of iOS as an alternative of OS X. It was powered by the identical A4 processor used within the authentic iPad. In different phrases, it was a extra mature product — though that didn’t cease Apple from treating it like an afterthought. When Steve Jobs first launched it onstage, he referred to as the brand new Apple TV “Another factor interest.”
A rising interest
Apple CEO Tim Cook dinner later defined this “interest” thought course of on Apple’s half. “Apple doesn’t do hobbies as a normal rule,” he informed an viewers at Goldman Sachs. “We consider in focus, solely engaged on a couple of issues. With Apple TV, nonetheless, regardless of the boundaries in that market, for these of us who use it, we’ve at all times thought there was one thing there and that if we saved following our instinct and pulling the string, we would discover one thing that’s bigger.”
The truth that the second-gen Apple TV received to 1 million models a lot extra rapidly than the first-gen mannequin confirmed that there was undoubtedly “one thing … bigger” that Apple may faucet into.
Nevertheless, the corporate nonetheless appeared not sure as to what this was. In Walter Isaacson’s biography of Jobs, the Apple chief alluded to an Apple tv set. That set off analysts on years of hypothesis that in the end got here to nothing.
Within the meantime, the success of rival firms like Roku continued to develop.
It took till 2014 for Cook dinner to say that the Apple TV had graduated to one thing greater than a interest. As we speak, Apple TV nonetheless isn’t the most important participant in set-top bins. However the Apple TV+ subscription service, which launched in November 2019, reveals how critical Apple is about breaking into TV.
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