So…even though there is no iTunes store for Korea, Apple has released the AppleTV into the Korean market according to Infinite Loop. Now the obviously question here is…huh?
Why would they do that?
There are two schools of thought on it.
1) Apple is planning to launch a Korean iTunes store soon.
2) Piracy is so rampent in Korea that having an iTunes store is probably pointless.
My guess is that #2 is the correct answer. It takes no time at all to take a file downloaded off the web and convert it to AppleTV format with a decently powered computer, and a good deal of content that can be downloaded doesn’t need to be converted at all.
With all the hacks on top of that, I don’t think iTunes is even necessary for Korean sales to do well. It will be interesting to see how the AppleTV does in this iTunes-less market.
3 thoughts on “AppleTV – but not iTunes – now in Korea”
here in Poland wa also have AppleTV but no iTunes Store. We where fighting for it for some time now but nothing happened. I think that Apple is doing itself a great harm not allowing us to use full of iPod’s and Apple TV’s capabilities.
Why don’t you write an article for Hong Kong which doesn’t have an iTunes store but is selling Apple TV?
Same deal with Canada, we have an iTunes Store sure, but they don’t let us download any videos. 🙁