I was over at my folk’s house the other day, and the subject of the new AppleTV came up. He says to me, “You know, I was at Best Buy the other day, and they have these Samsung TVs with apps built in. Why would I buy an AppleTV?”
Admittedly, that’s kind of a tough sell. If you don’t want to stream your iTunes library to the living room, there’s not a lot of compelling reasons to get one. Thing is, I don’t see a single reason why I’d want that particular Samsung TV, other than possibly Netflix.
Anyone remember WebTV? I remember the claims back in the day of people using their TVs like computers, surfing the web and everything. Know how exciting that is? It isn’t. Am I really going to put out a tweet from my TV when my iPhone or iPad is within reach? Do I really care about checking USA Today on the television? Do I want to type ANYTHING on a thick, push button remote control? No. No I don’t, and I don’t think many people will either. Right now, it’s a bit of a novelty act, like the bearded lady or the monkey-faced boy. But really, it’s just Samsung trying to get customers to buy yet another TV, because if they’ve already upgraded to HD or 3D, there really is no reason to buy a new one.
Problem is, I don’t have a compelling reason for the AppleTV either. I mean, I’d buy one, but I’m in the target demo. I just don’t see everyone buying one.
