Apple has always been describing its TV lineup as just another hobby and now it has cut off the 40GB model and also brought down the price of the 160GB model by around $100. So what could this exactly mean?? Is Apple planning to end its TV lineup( it has a lot of fans) or is it just devicing some other plan to take it to a different level altogether.

The Apple’s site still has the 160GB model listed and also it offers a new software upgrade to its users. With the help of this software, the users can create movie wish lists and watch their favourite regional movies with subtitles. This software can be checked for by the Apple TV and it will download it automatically.

However Apple has always maintained that the combined category of TV and media players is still a hobby. Also this combined genre faces tough competition from the cable set boxes and according to most analysts Apple is going through the same phase as Microsoft went through once upon a time with its Windows Media Center.

Talking about the media extender category Rob Enderle chief analyst at Enderle group added that most of the companies who have tried their hands out at this category have mostly failed because when there are cable set top boxes the use of the media extenders becomes almost redundant. He also added that except for the Microsooft Xbox none of the other manufacturers were actually successful and also the success of the Xbox was largely due to its gaming component.

However when asked if Apple could succeed in making the Apple TV consumer friendly, Enderle answered saying that Apple has probably done the best job so far as far as media extenders are concerned.

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