The big news from Apple, Inc. (renamed from Apple Computer (News - Alert)) Tuesday was the new iPhone communications device. Mostly lost in the mobile excitement was the company’s other announcement, namely the upcoming February launch of Apple TV.

 

Apple TV is a set-top box that allows digital media (TV shows, movies, etc.) to be wireless transmitted from a desktop computer to a television set. The new product will retail for $299.

 

In a phone conversation with TMCnet Tuesday, Frost & Sullivan analyst Gerry Purdy described Apple TV as the sleeping giant product in Apple’s January 9 announcements. Everybody has been waiting for a company to build a media server that is equally good at recording and distributing content—and Apple has done just that.

 

“Apple TV has 802.11n, which allows full media streaming to multiple TVs in the home,” he said. “It’s really an important product. It may bring Apple more easily into the living-room than Microsoft (News - Alert), because of ease of use and distribution.”

 

Purdy said that Apple TV raises the bar for other companies, like TiVo, competing in the home entertainment market. If TiVo wants to compete effectively with Apple, for example, the company will have to enhance the distribution features of its product line.

 

In a report Tuesday, Associated Press noted that an Apple TV prototype, colloquially referred to as iTV, was demoed during Apple’s September, 2006 launch of its new iPod product line and sale of TV shows and movies through the online iTunes store.

 

Information about Apple TV was made available on the Apple Web site Tuesday. The Apple TV page acknowledged that, for many people, the desktop computer is the center of one’s digital life, while television sets still dominate the entertainment realm. Apple TV, the company indicated, is designed to bring those two realms together.

 

“Apple TV brings iTunes to the big screen,” Apple said on its Web site.

 

The set-top box can be connected to a TV using either an HDMI port, or video/audio ports. An 802.11 wireless connection automatically syncs the box with a user’s iTunes library on his or her desktop computer.

 

AP noted that Apple TV, like the revolutionary iPod, is designed to “liberate media from the computer, allowing people to enjoy digital files without being chained to a desktop or laptop.”

Purdy of Frost & Sullivan told TMCnet that the launch of both iPhone and Apple TV redefines Apple’s industry identity.

 

“Overall, these announcements create more of a brand around Apple as a media company than Apple as a computer company,” he said.

 

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