Every so often I’ll come across an article claiming the failure of the Apple TV. They site poor expected sales and it’s lack of features as determining factors of it’s apparent demise.  While I’m not going to argue on the sales numbers of the device, I must clarify what exactly the Apple TV is in my eyes.

Quite simply, the Apple TV is the perfect intermediary between my Mac and my TV.  My Mac is a fantastic platform to obtain, organize and create media of all types. I subscribe to a few podcasts (mostly video) and years worth of pictures are filed away within iPhoto.  I download all my music from iTunes and even purchase a movie from the iTunes store on occasion.  Additionally I have a small collection of videos obtained online from various sources that I’ve converted over and imported into iTunes. My Mac makes all of the above very easy to obtain, modify and organize.

Now what use is all this great content with no other way to present and enjoy it besides it being locked away on my PC?  Enter the Apple TV. As easily as I can on my Mac, I can browse and present all my content for myself and others in the comfort of my living room.  It quite nicely takes advantage of my large screen TV and decent sound system to enjoy all this content even more than I already could on my PC.  I watch my podcasts, listen to my music and share all my pictures and videos with my friends and family from the comfort of my couch.

This is precisely what the Apple TV was designed for. Nothing more.  It’s not a DVD player and it’s not a DVR. There are plenty of other devices that provide that functionality quite nicely.

The Apple TV does what it does quite well and was never intended to be an all in one type device.  Apple has left plenty of room for additional features and functionality for the Apple TV and I truly hope that “poor sales figures” does not deter them from continuing to improve it.