Nearly three years after its introduction, the Apple TV remains a hobby in the eyes of Apple. This view was confirmed by CEO Steve Jobs during a post-iPad Town Hall meeting among employees, where he reiterated that the company still views the set-top box as experimental.

Many other details about the Town Hall have already leaked online. As noted by Wired, Jobs thinks Google's "don't be evil" mantra is less-than-genuine and that Adobe is lazy; he said that no one will be using Flash in the future and the world is moving to HTML5. MacRumors added that Apple plans to release aggressive updates to the iPhone and that the iPad ranks with the iPhone and the Mac as important products that Jobs has been party to. We confirmed all of these details with our own sources; it's clear that Apple is very confident in its iPhone and iPad strategy for the coming years.

One detail not mentioned by any other publications was Jobs' brief discussion of the Apple TV. According to sources speaking to Ars, an employee asked during the meeting if Apple's stance on the device had changed. Jobs confirmed what most of those who own Apple TVs had feared: no, it's still a hobby.

Of course, the company said several times in 2007 that the Apple TV was nothing more than a hobby, so the latest revelation is less of a surprise and more of a disappointment. In 2007, Jobs told the company that he hoped the Apple TV would be as big as the Mac, iPod, and iPhone, but that it was still in experimental stages. That remains to be the case, it seems, despite numerous efforts by Apple to make it attractive to both users and content providers.

In 2008, the company introduced HD movie rentals to the iTunes Store, but they were restricted to the Apple TV only. That was apparently a failed attempt at offering extra value in the set-top box (and also "protecting" HD content from those nasty computer users), as Apple then opened up rentals to the Mac and PC a year later.

Since then, the Apple TV has gotten one major UI makeover (one that continues to be finicky for some of us), but has otherwise seen little overt attention from Apple. The overall movie selection on iTunes continues to float somewhere between "mediocre" and "decent," and there's still an obnoxious release window between the time when you can buy a new movie and rent it. Sure, this is a downfall of the iTunes Store itself, but the Apple TV is the living room extension of the iTunes Store. If the iTunes Store isn't compelling, neither is the Apple TV.

In a way, the iPad brings some hope for the Apple TV because of its focus on media consumption. With more devices in more hands, Apple can use that exposure to push for smaller release windows and more content. And, of course, that long-rumored TV subscription plan wouldn't hurt in boosting the Apple TV either, though it sounds as if there's still a long way to go before media companies get on board. Until then, the Apple TV can remain a hobby all it wants as customers (myself included) subscribe to Netflix to get their set-top fix.