Survey, Apple TV

A survey conducted in mid-December of 2006 polling 228 consumer electronics industry professionals suggests that Apple's forthcoming Apple TV set-top-box media streaming device will succeed in the digital living room. The survey, which focused on the future of "media centers," found that industry respondents cited Apple as the media center manufacturer with the highest chance of mass market acceptance, according to Financial firm SeekingAlpha. Apple dominated responses from industry professionals, receiving a whopping 43 percent of the total responses. Other manufacturers in the study included Sony (with 14 percent), Microsoft (totaling 11 percent), TiVo (8 percent), and HP (7 percent). Samsung, Cisco, and Dell are also named in the study, with all three fetching four percent of responses. The remaining 17 percent of respondents chose "other" manufacturers as those most likely to succeed in the living room.

Further questioning revealed high expectations for the Apple TV during its first year on store shelves. The survey asked participants how likely it is that iTV will be a "huge success" in the first year after its release, with 16 percent of respondents saying "very likely." Most participants (48 percent) said the Apple TV is somewhat likely to prove a huge success, but only 9 percent believed the device's success is very unlikely.

When asked which 'digital living room' company should show up on SeekingAlpha's ChangeWave radar screen for 2007, Apple is again by far the most mentioned by industry respondents with 28 percent of the total responses. Less than half (11 percent) of that amount chose Sony as a company to watch, while Microsoft drew 8 percent of responses.

by MacNN Staff