wraggster
January 17th, 2008, 19:20
Up until yesterday, the living room set-top box was simply a "hobby" for Apple; its fumbled Apple TV product did little to unseat the HD video rental download champ, the largely uncontested Xbox Live Video Marketplace. With a fresh splash of software for new boxes and a free upgrade for current users, Apple TV Take 2 is giving it another shot.
Of course, for an audience of gamers (that's us!), Apple's product has a particularly severe handicap but, on a strictly video entertainment scale, it manages to best the Xbox Live Video Marketplace in just about every category. Now we realize this is, in many ways, an apples to oranges comparison (sorry), but Microsoft isn't just competing for gamer dollars anymore and competition is growing (in fact, the at-home-rental set-top box industry will see another entrant later this year with Netflix).
http://www.joystiq.com/2008/01/16/charted-xbox-live-video-marketplace-vs-apple-tv/
Of course, for an audience of gamers (that's us!), Apple's product has a particularly severe handicap but, on a strictly video entertainment scale, it manages to best the Xbox Live Video Marketplace in just about every category. Now we realize this is, in many ways, an apples to oranges comparison (sorry), but Microsoft isn't just competing for gamer dollars anymore and competition is growing (in fact, the at-home-rental set-top box industry will see another entrant later this year with Netflix).
http://www.joystiq.com/2008/01/16/charted-xbox-live-video-marketplace-vs-apple-tv/