Apple to Rule the Digital Home by 2013?

Stony Stevenson writes to tell us that a new study from Forrester Research is taking a crack at what seems to have become a hobby for so many, predicting Apple's market strategy. Specifically, Forrester is predicting that Apple will become the 'hub of the digital home by 2013.' "Forrester predicts that Apple will offer eight key products and services to connect PCs and digital content to the TV-stereo infrastructure in consumers' homes. A 're-engineered' Apple Store will expand into in-home installation services to deliver what Forrester describes as a 'fully integrated digital experience.'"

Comments

Quick summary:

[kaos07]

Maybe I'm just hungover but to me the article seems to be nothing but: "Blah blah blah Apple. Blah blah Apple Blah Apple Blah."

Why wait until then?

[Jafafa Hots]

I have a PopcornHour Networked Digital Media Tank. I can play video files of any format including subtitles from any PC on the network on my HDTV, audio files from any PC on the network on my stereo.

I can also use it to play any streaming video or audio from the net, browse Google Video and Youtube and many others from my couch... and it even has a built-in bittorrent client if I want to download media to the internal hard drive.

All in a little box the size of an external drive enclosure... with a remote. USB inputs, network inputs, HDMI out, etc.

All for a couple of hundred bucks. Which I'm sure is a fraction of what Apple will be charging when theirs comes to market in a few years.

Re:Yeah

[Ilyon]

You can laugh now, but a slow introduction of an Apple product does not guarantee eventual failure.

Estimates indicate 1-1.5 million Apple TVs were sold in their first year on the market.

In comparison, the iPod sold 376,000 units in their first year on the market. We're not laughing at iPod now, are we?