From Apple’s quarterly earnings call, as transcribed by Seeking Alpha:
Bill Fearnley – FTN Midwest: […] Steve, how are you thinking about Apple TV now? […] If you look at the digital living room category and you look at the upcoming year of 2009, how do you look at the digital living room opportunity and how it relates to Apple TV?
Steven P. Jobs: Well again, I think the whole category is still a hobby right now. I don’t think anybody has succeeded at it and actually the experimentation has slowed down. A lot of the early companies that were trying things have faded away, so I’d have to say that given the economic conditions, given the venture capital outlooks and stuff, I continue to believe it will be a hobby in 2009.
Where do I even start? While Apple continues to believe providing digital media in the living room is a “hobby” the door remains wide open for those who are serious about this space. The big Steve-o is correct that current economic conditions are and will be a drag but, as Apple has shown, innovation doesn’t cease in the face of adversity. Within the last few weeks, we’ve seen Hulu land on D-Link’s DivX extender, ZvBox, SlingCatcher, and the PS3. But if I’m wrong about the increased momentum of converged “lean back” technologies, we’ll just have a quiet 2009 here on ZNF.