Pretty gushy review today from Walt Mossberg at the WSJ regarding his 10 day experience with AppleTV. I originally offered my opinions on AppleTV's prospects (then called "iTV") back in my December '06 newsletter ("7 Broadband Video Trends for 2007"). I thought AppleTV was likely a winner, but contingent on its content strategy. If it offered buyers access to iTunes content only then its appeal would be much more limited than if it opened up the box to all broadband video sources.

When Steve Jobs offered more details in his Macworld keynote I downgraded my enthusiasm, as they chose the former content strategy, precluding (for now) AppleTV's role as THE bridge between PC/broadband and TV. Walt reiterates this point ("Apple TV's most important limitation is that it can't stream much video or audio directly from the Internet -- yet.") but hints that this capability will be available in gen2 boxes.

I reiterate my opinion - for now AppleTV is ultracool, but will likely find only a limited audience to fork over $299 mainly to watch iTunes content on their TVs, plus manipulate music and photos. When AppleTV allows easy access to the rest of the world of broadband video, then it's going to be a big hit.