That's the case now, but that was certainly not the case in the late 19th century when gold fever struck. The only use back then was jewelry and the fact that is was rare.
Have you ever been outside of North America.
I see Mac's all over Europe all the time. Not only in developer friendly environments. Busses, trains, coffee shops,...
Here in Europe the situation is mostly the other way around. Netflix is available in most countries for a year or two.
Amazon launched only a month ago in most European countries.
Also the author mentioned Eye TV which is DVR software.