To kind of borrow a thought from Robert X Cringely, why doesn’t Apple just say that like Apple TV started out, that it is a hobby that they aren’t really quite sure about?
there’s a lot of context that needs to be put here.
First of all, when Steve first introduced the Apple TV, he absolutely did not call it a hobby product.
Not At the first preview in September 2006:
And Not at the actual introduction in January 2007:
The product hit the market in March 2007, without the word “hobby” being used once to describe it by Steve.
At MacWorld 2008 he gave another presentation on an updated version of the first generation Apple TV with new software and iTunes rentals, at a lower price. Again, he did not use the word “hobby” to describe it. He used the words “Accessory to iTunes” to describe it, and he also called it a “revolution” but he absolutely did not call it a “hobby”.
However, the first time he called it a “hobby” openly was in June 2010 at the all things digital conference, and he even gave an explanation…
Pay close attention to his explanation.
He doesn’t call it a “hobby” because it’s a low volume product.
He Doesn’t call it a “hobby” because he didn’t believe in it.
He explicitly calls it a “hobby” because at the time, the cable companies had such a stranglehold on the industry that there was absolutely no room for innovation. Because of that, any product Apple released was going to be compromised in some areas, and they instead decided to focus on phones and tablets more than the television due to these limitations.
The Apple Vision Pro does not have this difficulty at all.
The AR/VR market pretty much has limitless possibilities for innovation an improvement at the moment, and Apple is dumping billions and billions and billions of dollars into it every year. And has been for the better part of a decade.
I’d say that Apple’s current “hobby” products are like… The HomePod and AirTags, kind of wild card products they sell and people like but they are absolutely not the priority.
Apple Vision Pro definitely is the priority product right now, and come 2024 I think Apple is going to try to push this thing as much as they can.
And given that they’ll probably be able to sell as many units as they can make, things like unit sales and high prices aren’t really going to be a factor at first when even people who want them and can afford them just can’t seem to get them.
Meanwhile, does the Apple TV ever go out of stock?
