Target stores to pick up Apple TV - Page 2

Why even bother separating content from the hardware in the discussion about Apple TV? It's a consumer electronics device. Ripping HD content from other sources, and placing it in iTunes just so you can stream it to your TV is not a need that most consumers are looking to fill.

If Apple wants to sell Apple TV's, then they should have offered HD content from iTunes from launch time. Then I could at least see some kind of sense in buying one -- View HD movies from iTunes and bypass Blu-Ray/HD-DVD (tho I still wouldn't buy one for a number of reasons already stated a million times by others).

Having said all that, I could possibly see Apple selling a lot of these things on hype alone, kind of like a crappy movie that breaks box office records on its opening weekend. Does anyone yet know how these things are selling?

But they do still have all the Zunes

Great. But unless you have your own content or are willing to rip your own DVDs, there's no point in buying an AppleTV.

I'm reading a lot of comments that are blaming Target and Best Buy for a lack of Apple TV floor space and/or sales.. But the bottom line is that Target and Best Buy will give as much floor space as needed if there is a demand and customers are inquiring about the product..

Much like any retailer, the stores work on a dollar per square foot basis. It is not the responsibility of Target and Best Buy to generate interest in a product, it is Apple's job to do that.. Yes, the stores could set up displays and train employees on Apple tv, but what incentive is there for them to do this if say putting up a Nintendo Wii display is going to generate 5x the sales for them?

Quite honestly, Apple tv is off to a mediocre start, it's not a flop, but it is at the bottom of the top seller list even at Apple's very own on-line store..

If Apple does it's job correctly with advertisments and it turns out that there is consumer interest outside of Apple's customer base, the stores like BB and Target will dedicate the floor space accordingly.

I have an Apple TV, and I love it for music and photos, but like most others, I'm extremely dissappointed with the quality of content available at tje iTunes store.. Since Apple TV is a content playback device, I think that Apple really needs to focus on getting high quality content available and interest in Apple tv will take off.

Because there are too man comments saying the AppleTV is crap because they only saw an iTuens Store purchased movie. It's like me saying that your monitor is crap based on you showing me a YouTube video or me saying yout stero is crap because you played audio encoded as a 64-bit MP3.

Not all content is created equal. The iTunes Store is severely lacking right now. Once Apple gets that up the AppleTV will be much more successful.

As I've said before, there are two issues here. One is speculative and the other obvious. One speculates possible reason due to contracts with the media vendors and the other is logistical issues due to size and resolution limitations of Apple's most popular HW for watching iTunes Store video, the 5.5G iPod.

I bought 2 of the new pink ones and one brown Zune. In other words, I got two in the pink and one in the stink.

We use ours endlessly for music from iTunes and photos from Aperture or iPhoto! Even if it could not play a movie I'd love it to bits

However, I am sure Apple will soon have a higher def movie solution soon.

i worked with Best Buy and Target buyers for 9 years. i already stated what probably is the case back through these wild observations i am reading here. how you can think up all these merchandising ideas about retailing with these companies? It is just hilarious!

again.. the reason Best Buy rolled it out without even so much as a test in a few stores is because they want the phone. If a best buy clerk doesn't know the plan-o-gram location (it is is like biblical law if Best Buy or Target have a product in their stores) of the ITV then it is further proof that the product is not organized for re-sale yet. Every product in these store has a retail footprint. every product. Target runs tests in a few stores on all new product ideas. that is just the way it is done period.

handling the ITV at this time by either of these accounts is for other reasons. They want something else from Apple or they would not bother at this early stage of marketing the ITV. Target doesn't pioneer anything - and Best Buy only does if they gets enough seed money to make them interested. I say it is the Phone.. the phone the phone and more of the phone. both of these companies want the phone at the earliest possible moment they can get it. Both of these companies want to be on the bandwagon.

it is amazing how apple geeks read between the lines for an account like Target or Best Buy to take on a new product. the Marketing mix is genuinesly an intertwined miasma of marketing genius. one needs to take it all in before understanding something so Bizarre as Target putting the ITV into their retail stores.

So you can explain why no one is ever in the electronics department at our local Target maybe?

And short of hacking the thing, what else are they supposed to watch on it?

Maybe they should have waited until that time before launching this thing.

And why no one has any clue where the items I want are located despite Best Buy's website clearing stating that it is in store and carried at my local store?

You don't have to hack the thing to play non-iTunes Store content. Now you're just trolling.... again.


Maybe they should have. But the fact that iTunes Store doesn't currently carry HD content doesn't mean that AppleTV won't play HD content.

So true, I saw on the web that Best Buy carried "in most store" the Apple branded device that lets you drop your digital pictures from your camera directly onto your iPod. When you get home it uploads them to iPhoto. It's a $30 item I really wanted. I went to the local BB and searched the rows and rows of accessories, mostly non-Apple brands, and couldn't find it. I asked the clerk for help and he didn't know anything, we look online found the sku and he search and found no inventory in his store because they didn't stock that item. He search the entire region around and not a single store stocked it. Apple needs to get their products besides the iPod out there in the stores! I'm tired of having to buy things at the online stores, sometimes I'm in a hurray.
I'm glad to see Apple getting into all these new areas of technology, they have become the cool company to the youth. I've been using Macs since 87 and it's never been better.

And you've got your nose up SJ's a**, again.

well sure i can. everything that is NOT under glass does not or should not require a sales person to assist you. products on gondola display are plan-o-grammed and every store has the exact same location for the exact same product. an ITV will be displayed with a TV of course and each store should have the same layout there too. but it would be only a test in a few stores - maybe one district for a two or three month period first.

if there is no-one behind a glass counter that is a problem. should the person behind glass know anything about what is on area shelves - probably not. by the time a product reaches those shelves it is already supposed to have a built in market demand. this is supplemented by the weekly advertisments if it is an item the will draw traffic to the department, the store and if the cost of the ad space is justified by either sales estimates or .. more likely vender support.

To all the financial geniuses who keep going on about how no one's going to buy an AppleTV as long as there's no HD content in iTunes: wake up. HD is not so pervasive yet. The majority of people watch 480p programming on their TVs. How many people do you know who run their sweet new 1080 TV with the wrong aspect ratio? To them, the picture quality on those AppleTV demo models at the Apple Store is awesome.

Remember how no one was going to pay to watch iPod-sized video? Now, remember how well that's been selling?

Keep your nitpicking to yourself. I've been watching TV shows, movies, video podcasts and photos in everything from 240 to 1080 on my AppleTV and it's a blast. A fun, easy, convenient blast. That's worth my money.

The Target and BestBuy employee treatment of the machine, makes it look like crap. I never said it was crap I said it gave the impression.

The way BestBuy employees and Target employees tell customers not to buy it to instead buy something else (better margins). The way they have no clue about the products, they way they keep it out of the floor. That is what makes it look bad

Why the help, if you can find it never knows the product and guides people to the products they know?

You are comparing your abilities and sofistication with that of the average customer. If you play a crappy video they see that and think it is the device because they don't know any better.

Apple should be demoing HD even if they don't sell it yet in iTunes. Without HD demos they are likely to be easily turned to another product.

So people should never express an opinion that is different from yours?

People have the right to say what it is on their mind, as long as they are not insulting you I don't see why you should be upset about it.

We are supposed to be exchanging ideas and opinions at a forum, there is no point if we all have the same exact opinion.

Do you have HD video of THAT???!!??!!???!!!

I wonder if it is related to the Burst.com lawsuit

http://burst.com/new/newsevents/pressrelease0014.htm

Well then, I don't agree, and I think your analogy is pretty bad. But let's modify your example to create the equivalent of the Apple TV phenomenon:

• YouTube/Google releases a free downloadable app called "YouTube Library" for managing and saving your favorite YouTube videos.
• Google releases a streaming device called "YouTube TV HD" with HDMI hookups.
• YouTube TV only displays full-screen, and only streams from YouTube Library.
• A customer buys YouTube HD, hooks it up and his YouTube videos look terrible.

Now he could have put his own high quality videos in YouTube library, but come on. He's using the product exactly as intended and the overall result is underwhelming.

You don't judge this product as stand-alone hardware. It's an endpoint to a system that has the iTunes Store at its hub. You can say "well, the system's the problem, not the endpoint", but the customer is buying his way into the system with the endpoint. The hardware can be used other ways, but this is not some "bonus feature" we're talking about, like using your iPod to play Tetris. I think it's pretty obvious what the intended message is here: buy movies from Apple, watch them on your TV. Well, the quality of that experience isn't that great, and I don't agree with separating that assessment from the assessment of the hardware.

I'll say this though: One poster mentioned that Apple should have demoed this product with HD content. I have to give Apple credit for not doing this. That would been a completely dishonest representation of what the consumer can expect from the whole Apple/iTunes experience.

I shop frequently at Target and I never ask the clerks for help because I don't need it. I'm usually trolling the clearance racks for cheap electronics (I got some 512 MB USB memory for five bucks yesterday) My wife does ask occasionally and is usually able to get the help she needs.

But here's the deal with the clerks at the Target electronics. They will find out about they're interested in and chances are the teenagers and twenty somethings working there will know about the Apple TV because they'll think it's cool. They'll be able to talk to the customers about it because it'll be like talking to their mom or dad or big brother or sister. Trust me. If you want help with video games or components, you can get help at Target. My kid, who's eleven, always talks to the kids at Target about video games. Apple TV will be the same thing.

Also, if Apple doesn't go mass market on this how else will anyone see it? In my area, we have three Targets, two Best Buys, two Circuit Citys but NO Apple Store. Apple needs to put this item where people look at TVs. Lots of people.

I can almost guarantee Target will not lose any DVD sales due to AppleTV. 1) Target employees won't be able to explain it. 2) Once customers understand what it can do, will decide not to buy it.

I think it's gonna be a hard candy Christmas for AppleTV... and I'm an Apple fanboy!

Average Joe consumers don't know AppleTV only works with a modern digital television, they don't know you can't use it like a TiVo, and they don't know you must have a computer stream the content to the unit.

Apple has got a lot of 'splainin' to do before AppleTV is even recognized at retail for what it does. I've explained it numerous times to people who like iPods, and know precious little else about Apple.

That's why I also said in another post that Apple needs to advertise the product, and how to advertise it.

Perhaps that will happen. This is a mass merchant product. It's pretty simple. If you have a computer already, you can certainly figure this out in a couple of minutes. People shouldn't be making more of a problem out of this than there is.

And as for quality, people here have to be kidding!

I go to friends homes and see them sitting 12 feet away from their 42" HD Tv. Wow! Apple really needs 720p.

Even the magazine and Tv ads for HD Tv's show people seated 15, even 20 feet away. Those people can't even see 480i from there.

Great!

Apple's crappiest product in one of America'a crappiest stores!

[QUOTE=halhiker;1072885] chances are the teenagers and twenty somethings working there will know about the Apple TV because they'll think it's cool. [QUOTE]


Thats pretty unrealistic. How is ATV "cool" for that generation? It means they have to stream the things they can see in private on their parents' TV sets in the living room. Most of them are more interested in porn and BitTorrent downloads than borrowing mommy's credit card and buying movies on iTunes. Also, low-res is "uncool" unless your watching movies on YouTube... Furthermore, it doesn't play games. I think is you ask any gamer, Apple is the lamest company going anyways...

The help in a Target store is there to stock shelves mostly. each department has someone who oversees the stocking of shelves as well as inventory and posting merchandise in the exact place the department buyer has designated for it. Target does not allow point of purchase displays unless they coordinate their design (rare to have them). Best Buy loves POP and asks the venders to foot 500% of their cost!

So, if one is looking for product knowledge or information beyond a department where an item might be found - one needs the department manager or what ever it is they are calling that person now. open to buy is much like department stores - that is why out of stock on hot items sometimes goes way way too long. Stocking shelves is not limited to one department, so the person you meet in Hardware might be in Electronics next. get my drift? these people are not there to serve YOU. they are there to stock the shelves.

How on earth can a store be over 100,000 square feet in size, have numerous distinct product categories, millions of Stock keeping units and a roaming "stock clerk" be expected to know what you - the genius customer ...can't even find? The challenge most employees have is to be nice to disgruntled ambling consumers who don't know where they are or what kind of store they are shopping in?

Behind glass sales (jewelry and electronics for example) does have qualified people who are supposed to staff these areas. But their knowledge is sometimes very very limited - they are there to shove the advertised item your way when you come in looking for it. they also may know something about product in the area and beyond the covered glass area they are postioned in.. but that might be lucky to find. These people are not trained for product knowledge like you are in your field of work. they are trained to stock shelves correctly and to be courtious to the customer.

if you can't find a product in an area of the store cause it is not in the store - then why would a stock person know where it is? It isn't in the store for them to put out. product on advertised flyers is behind glass right inside the front door - sometimes rain checks can be found right there too.

I stopped at Best Buy today and they actually had an Apple TV hooked up to a 23" Samsung. It didn't look too shabby.

I haven't seen it in person yet, but I did see some really bad looking still photos from an Apple Store. \

The real question with Apple TV is when are they going to begin their media push with the hardware that they released. Sure there is a little out there with the current iTMS offerings, and they are probably going to be using those numbers to bring on more studios and TV stations, but this is a little minimalist for the potential of this product. One thing for sure is that the iPhone is taking a lot of resources at Apple to get up and running, and as a consumer device Apple TV is probably better marketed in the fall than in the early spring. I would expect that their real marketing campaign is coming with a more feature rich product and services by September. I guess we will know more of Apple's strategy for this year by what they tell us about Leopard, iPhone and Apple TV.