After long calling its Apple (AAPL 0.64%) TV segment a "hobby", the company sold $1 billion worth of Apple TVs over the last fiscal year, a figure that includes content sales. Though $1 billion is only a drop in the bucket for a company that did $174 billion in revenue last year, this significant increase in Apple TV sales volume was enough to make CEO Tim Cook note that it's "difficult to call it a hobby these days."
In this video from Tuesday's Tech Teardown, host Erin Kennedy and Motley Fool tech and telecom bureau chief Evan Niu take a look at Apple TV's historic sales volumes compared to today, and they also discuss the set top box market as a whole. The space was once seen as highly subsidized and difficult to disrupt for that reason; a consumer base that is willing to pay more for unique set top box offerings may open the door to a whole host of tech heavyweights interested in competing in this space.
