Agree. On one hand, Apple knows they will make $$$ millions instantly when they release an Apple TV App Store with thousands of apps. On the other hand, Apple is in absolutely no hurry to do so.
Why not? Because Apple TV is selling fairly well, and presumably users are renting and buying content. Also, every day, Apple TV is gaining mindshare at Google TV's expense. (Or is Google TV is failing all by itself?)
But I think there are a few more reasons why Apple can take its time with the Apple TV App Store. First, the more ATV apps available when the ATV App Store launches, the better. When Apple updates Xcode to allow for 3-way universal app development (iPhone/iPod touch, iPad, Apple TV) the race to develop HDTV resolution iOS apps will begin. Yet there is no "tipping point" minimum app count before the ATV App Store could open. Apple TV is already selling well enough to sustain itself just on the strength of its ease-of-use and Netflix / YouTube integration. Apps will simply accelerate sales.
Second, I think Apple may be waiting for would-be competitors to announce and/or release their competing TV app strategies. For example, if Google TV ever recovers from its poor launch, there may be an Android Market-like app store for it. There are rumors that Google has told its Google TV partners to avoid displaying their HDTV sets with Google TV built-in at CES. And CES is one of the most important consumer electronics trade shows.
And Samsung has already released their Internet@TV, which apparently can run widgets and/or native apps. These two would-be competitors have already made many mistakes. In public, with great fanfare, at trade shows and in TV commercials. And Apple knows that the moment the Apple TV App Store is rolled out, all its would-be competitors will be forced back to the drawing board. The more collective mistakes by the opposition, the better for Apple.
So, from Apple's perspective, it's best to allow the wannabes to first make their mistakes in public, then commit to flawed technology and strategies. They will be forced to re-engineer their products and admit that they were wrong, all of which is costly not only in development dollars but also in hardware partner confidence, consumer confidence, and consumer mindshare.
Sound fanboyish? Well look at recent history and you'll see it has been Apple's pattern. The MP3 player market was a free for all in 2001. Apple released iTunes first, then iPod 1.0 later that year. It took the competing MP3 makers years to figure out that iPod's key to success was iTunes. They thought it was just the shiny hardware and the clickwheel. Oops. They never recovered.
Then there was the smartphone market circa 2006. Palm OS and Windows CE (as Windows Mobile was called back then) were locked in a stalemate. BlackBerry was eating their lunch. Google's first version of Android was a near-perfect clone of BlackBerry. Apple announced iPhone in 01/2007 and changed the smartphone world forever. Google rushed back to the drawing board and pooped out an iPhone clone of Android (with the fatal violation of the Java license agreement baked in.) Just look at all the iPhone clones on the market now.
And then there was the whole braindead Windows tablet concept. For nine years, Microsoft kept flogging that same old dead horse. And every few years they did what they have historically done with failed new products. They renamed it, hyped it as though it were an all-new product, and threw millions of advertising dollars at the problem. Tablet PC, UMPC, HP Slate, etc. Microsoft was a big fish in its own small pond. Apple waded in, iPad became the giant fish, and the pond is getting bigger every minute.
So I think Apple is simply waiting for Apple TV competitors to fall into the various and sundry traps that await them. Google's current strategic problem was rushing Google TV to market before putting content deals in place. Google's fundamental, fatal error was trying to mash together too many opposites into Google TV. They hammered the square "computer complexity" peg into the round "TV simplicity" hole. And "lean forward" together with "lean back." And "personal computing" with "shared TV viewing." And who knows what other competitors will make the same mistakes?
TV instantly is simpler than using a controller and configurating it through windows media center.
