Folks, what we're looking at here is the investment bankers attempting to blackmail Apple with all the finesse and subtlety of a rugby tackle.
What they're saying is, "Let us handle your acquisitions and pay us millions to do it, or we will crank up the fake failure narrative."
I don't think I've seen a company attract such greed, but then again there are few companies sitting on such a huge pile of cash.
Yep you nailed it,
The M&A community wants their hands on Apple Money and they hate the fact they go directly to companies to buy them cutting out the who M&A community. I just wish Apple would pull a Trump on their folks. You know if Steve was around he would tell them all to go f themselves. Part of the reason Apple stock have been held back is do to the fact Apple does not play nicely with Wall Street, they want to know about new products and Apple business plans which Apple never shares.
The only thing that really matters in this segment is content. Without good deals in place a competitor is dead in the water.
Exactly, for both good and bad. On the good side, having most of your iTunes content instantly available on your TV or home theatre is great.
On the bad side, Apple and all other makers of similar home entertainment hubs and media players are totally at the mercy of the content owners. The perfect vision for the Apple TV is to be able to pick & choose only the TV and media content sources that I want to subscribe to, in an a-la-carte fashion based on personal preferences, have them always accessible whenever and wherever I want to consume them, and without commercial interruption. I also want to be able to subscribe and unsubscribe at-will. In other words allow me to cut out the networks, cable providers, content curators, and middlemen by paying for only what I want. Make it an on-demand My Network consisting only of my selected line-up of content that's not locked to any broadcast schedule or clock. For folks who prefer to receive "free TV" it'll still be available and still be peppered with 25% constant interruptions and fixed broadcast schedule.
As a device, the Apple TV is fine. You can nit pick details like the "which way is up?" ATV4 remote, the price, and the clunky user interface, but it is as good or better than comparable offerings from other vendors. I've never used it as a gaming platform so I can't weigh in on that aspect. I do wonder why there is no Safari app on Apple TV, especially with the iCloud productivity apps from Apple being quite decent. Seems like Safari on Apple TV would be a reasonable alternative to a ChromeBook for some situations, like classrooms. Sure, AirPlay mirroring works pretty well but there are times when all I want to do is hit the web from the sofa and don't want a Mac or iPad on my lap, just a lightweight BT keyboard. If the next ATV has integrated Safari I'll buy it on day 1. Maybe they sell it as a baby Mac Mini, i.e., Mac Nano.
Your wish for ala-carte TV is a pipe dream. It is pure economics.
Ever heard of buying in BULK? That is exactly what the current cable/sat/streaming packages are. If you only want 1 or 2 channels you will pay alot for them.
Just look at Netflix vs iTunes. Netflix you buy in BULK. Thousands of shows for $10 a month. What if you only want 1 show? That will cost you $5 on iTunes. Live TV is the same.
Right now I get 40+ channels on Playstation Vue for $35. That is reasonable IMO. Most people want at least 10 channels. Hardly anyone wants just 1 or 2 channels.
So please explain pricing for Ala Carte? How much would it be per channel?
This is like expecting Costco to sell you a single muffin for 50 cents since the 12 pack cost $5.99. Get real. A single muffin would probably cost you $2
I agree that the content owners will try to keep this a pipe dream for as long as they can. But isn't this the same basic argument that record companies were touting when pushing back on Steve Jobs and his $0.99 per song iTunes model? The record companies wanted to keep everyone in the bulk model (album sales only) and pushed back hard to block it. Of course the subscription pricing would have to be modified to accommodate a reasonable cost per stream or cost per series, cost per episode, or whatever the pricing granularity ends up being. However, I wouldn't stay locked into a mindset of the currently available bulk based models as being the only viable options. We're already seeing a big uptick in the number of non-traditional players getting into the original content creation space, e.g., Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, YouTube, soon-Apple, etc. This may disrupt the status quo.
This is a market that is prime for disruption -- and disruptive innovation typically comes from the low end. An on-demand, a la carte model just has to be "good enough" to fill smaller and more focused/selective needs for people who aren't coming close to consuming what they're paying for today. The channel numbers behind the big bulk packaging are largely meaningless to me, and I suspect others. If I'm only watching 5 shows a week, 3 or which are only on sat/cable, having a 300 channel package does not deliver more value to me and I'd rather be paying $25 a month for the few shows I watch instead of $100 a month so I have 295 other shows available to me that I am totally uninterested in ever watching.
I think there's a lesson to be learned from the success of iTunes and music that may be applicable, with the right granularity of pricing, to the delivery of other content, like TV, movies, events, etc.
Folks as a person who has been in the whole video delivery system off and on for last 20 yrs I can tell there is more to this than what we see today.
The issue we dealing with is no one know how the next video delivery system will work or look like. I can tell Apple is playing a wait and see approach because making the wrong bet too soon could cause them to waste lots of time and money, yeah they have lots of money but you do not want to be on the wrong platform if the market head in a different direction. Apple's App approach to TV seem to be in the right directions especially with the FCC saying all content owners and content delivery owners must provide and free app to watch content. Right now Apple has the best solution out there. Yes there are product today which work better than what app has today but as this market evolves some of the other solutions maybe in trouble. Apple single logon solves lots of problems no one else has this solution. TV app, single logon, universal search, and live content is the solution and no one else has all 4.
ATV 4 has Plex in the App store, and it works as well as any Plex client. Earlier ATVs need to be jailbroken to run plex.
Yes. Thanks for the info. My Apple TV will only go.up.to 7.2.2 so its a no go without jailbreaking. Just went through the upgrade process and saw it wasn't going to be for Plex.
Might drop some cash on a Minix though. No more Apple TV for me unless they spruce it up a fair bit.
Actually, I take that back: you can run Plex on ATV2 & 3 without jailbreaking. I jailbroke my ATV2, so I was confusing the two issues.
Thanks for the link. I'll take a look at this tomorrow.
I feel your pain. When I realised it didn't even want to try and play anything that wasn't in an approved format and had a limited remote to navigate a limited interface I quickly lost the will to search for workarounds.
ATV supports the video formats Apple has always supported. They arent going to support MKV or whatever formats torrented content uses. But it's real darn simple to download the Plex app on your ATV and get stream any and all of it.
If you're going to go that route you can use an app like iVI (Mac App Store). It will strip and replace the container without any further encoding. It will also grab all correct metadata from open databases for TV shows and movies, as well as a cover image, and then import it into iTunes for you.
Not once, but twice! LOL. And on the same day! I was with you on the subject of Furman blocking you on Twitter. That was pretty lame on his part and if all you did was express your opinion, even lamer.
I was going to say something earlier but got sidetracked with work stuff.
We were led to believe after 3 years and Steve's dying breath uttered "I solved the TV interface blah blah" statement, that we WERE expecting a "breakthrough" product through TV 4
Far from it - starting with: out of the box NOT being able to get sound. Can you say 2016 MacBook Pro "Touch Bar"? Yep this nonsense of "nothing you have will now connect" started waaaaaaay back with TV alienating users ability to use their current devices. Come on... no sound is a big one no matter how much you now like TV 4. And to top it off the "fix" was NOT something you could just drive to BestBuy and buy, no it was so unique you had to order it online and wait for it to arrive?
And all of this hassle was created because they removed the audio port for... yep you guessed it a USB-C port, but not because you could use it it was ONLY in case you had to bring it to the genus bar for repair. They removed the optical sound port for Genius Bar to get access to something that MIGHT break? Well that's not a vote of confidence no matter what you think?
ok that's that.
Next up the interface: you have other boxes having the ability to stream and play 4K video - something Apple claimed was too "nitche" to even consider? This from the same company that took 5 years to get us 1080p on TV? Hello? Has no one at apple been to a Costco the past 2 -3 years?? The 4k TV's have been out for 3 "non computer upgrade cycles" at least .
So the new mac has 4 USB-C only because we need to "stay ahead of the curve", and no headphone jack on iPhone 7 (same reason) but they release a tv box specifically for a TV that doesn't offer something that's been on a tv for 2-3 years?? That shows me a lot about the team running its development of this device.
And then the user interface. Since the moment it was released, as a developer and beta tester I have bitched and complained about the scrolling options when looking at your OWN movies. One slight tiny movement of the finger throws you out of the "TITIES" column into the "UNWATCHED" column or "GENRES" column - then when you try to go back to where you were ("I almost made it to the letter "D") it makes me start over and over and over back to the letter "A". Seriously? How hard would it be to make it an actual dedicated "non jumping" column for each topic? One you stay in while scrolling downwards? What a pain in the ass. And each beta request was met with "please send screen shots were not sure what you're describing?" WTF? Oh I sent screen shots but they ask I describe what each screen shot was for. So I made a damn movie and then I never heard from them ever again until one day I got a notice "this ticket is now closed as a dupicate@. When I asked what that meant I was told "weee not at liberty to discuss this". Huh?
And it took 19 months to come up with even a slight "fix"? Now at least when it "jumps columns", it At least tries to get closer to where you were in the 26 letter alphabet, but I hardly find this scrolling option "state of the art" or "groundbreaking". My 8 year old kid who mastered wii at 3 with smaller hands has no advantage either. Over and over he yell "Dad I can't get to Scooby-Doo it keeps jumping columns around "F" can you come do this?
Now before someone jumps in and says "just use Siri!" Yeah about that... Siri won't search through your shit, only things you bought from Apple. So why can't she search the drive connected to my Mac providing me with my 2,000+ bluray movie library? The iPhone the Mac itself - know how to search. How come the groundbreaking TV 4 cant? At least that would be a workaround around the scrolling column disaster.
Ill stop there. Trust me there's much more to go on about.
So before we totally attack this asshole - and yes he is an asshole - consider that after a 3 year wait and death of our beloved CEO this is what they have given us? And now we're heading on it's 2 year anniversary of its release and still no resolve to these two main issues? Sorry but this (TV 4) was then and in many aspects still is a mess compared to other tv boxes out there.
I love Apple. They are MY company but they are making some really bizarre decisions and doing more alienating their users (regarding requests for things WE want and need) then they are providing groundbreaking releases. I'm just one man with an optinion but is it too much to ask once you enter a column you stay in that column? Imagine EXCEL jumping columns while scrolling but instead of other columns in the same document it starts scrolling through other documents instead. What a mess that would be! How is this different? Why aren't they fixing it along with Siri finding our stuff connected to the device? "Either purchase it from us or screw you?" That's the new apple?
See these are all legitimate customer complaints. What they are not is the useless "troll" hunting we get from the ATL poster who engages in spurious whataboutary and other mental gymnastics, as if this was a football team or an ideology. it isn't, it is a company.
A) Apple TV does a lot of things great, I use it all the time, it's a great value for what it does, it's very useful in many ways: streaming hulu/netflix/HBO, renting movies, air play to my speakers, love the slow-mo backgrounds, which I keep on in the background just by themselves, which is always a hit with guests.
B ) It seems pretty clear that Apple had high hopes for being the primary box that the cable content would be siphoned through; too bad that legislation mandating this capability be provided by the cable companies didn't pan out.
C) Gaming is sorely lacking. There's got to be a lot of people like me that don't want to get involved in a PS or XBOX but still wants a fun FPS ffs. I love the game Mr Jump though.
D) A gesture/voice recognition module would be fantastic.
E) Where the f*ck is the killer app to kill all other apps on the Apple TV ????? ..seriously, what the hell is taking so long: karaoke.
Dude you can do karaoke on AppleTV. But you need some hardware:
1. Youtube App. Search - type song name and Karaoke. There is literally almost any decently famous song with Karaoke lyrics on Youtube. This is Much better then paying for songs on a traditional karaoke system
Now you could simply sing along with your TV or use a mic connected to a sound system.
Or if you are serious:
1. Buy a cheap mixer on Amazon. This one is good for $29, it has echo effects and can handle 2 mics:
2. Buy a PA speaker. WARNING DO NOT USE YOUR TV OR HOME THEATER SPEAKERS WITH A MIC!!! Tv and Home theater speakers are meant for compressed sound. If you run a mic with singing you will break them.
Here's a nice speaker that can go LOUD in a decent size room. Cost $89 in Amazon. I use this single speaker in a 15x20 room that has 20 foot ceilings and is connected to another 12x15 room. It is very loud. Don't even THINK of using you TV speakers/home theater. You will kill them;
In total the hardware will cost about $150 for 2 mics. And this will absolutely BLOW AWAY Karaoke systems costing $400 or more. Plus you have 100% flexability with Youtube Karaoke videos. Other systems require you to buy their SONGS at high prices.
How to connect this?
Use you TV audio output. Run an audio cable (Red/White) from you TV to the mixer. Run an audio cable from the mixer to the PA speaker. Connect mics to mixer. You are done. If you TV does not have Audio (Red/White) output you can use a converted (if your TV has digital output).
A great Karaoke App is IMPOSSIBLE without HARDWARE. Like I said before you can't use your TV/home theater speakers. They will get destroyed by uncompressed singing. And you don't want to use a crappy mic on the remote or your phone. You need a nice mic. You need a mixer. You need a PA speaker.
But really Youtube is the best Karaoke video source. Its free. It has a TON of selection. Its pretty much perfect for Karaoke.
Thanks for that, I'll definitely check that stuff out. However, it seems pretty obvious to me, and even more so after reading your post, that an Apple Karaoke app would be a whopping success on the Apple TV. And the lack of such an app at this point seems like a HUGE oversight and missed opportunity.. to popularize the Apple TV, enhance Apple's overall ecosystem, and to dramatically increase the value of Apple Music with a tie-in. Every year I keep waiting for Apple to do this obvious move. It's been obvious for a long time, and it seems crazy to me that they haven't done this. Apple is in a unique position to do this better than anyone. Who's in charge of services there..
Also, completely agree that it would be a terrible idea for Apple to buy netflix.
Why would Apple make an App? How would it work? Would Apple also make a speaker/mic/mixer to go along with it?
Also remember if its an Apple App then you would have to pay music rights just like Apple Music. On Youtube its free because users are uploading the videos.
Again please explain what would be the benefit of an Apple Karaoke App? With out hardware ( quality mic, mixer, and PA speaker) its useless and even dangerous. If you do karaoke on your TV speakers you will destroy them.
You are saying an Apple Karaoke App is an obvious move. But it isn't. Cause it WONT WORK WITHOUT HARDWARE. You can't just have a Karaoke App and magically connect a mic to your TV. It does not work that way. Please explain how an Apple Karaoke App alone would work? How can you do karaoke without a Mic? How can you do karaoke without a mixer? A mixer BLENDS your voice and the music, without it you will sound horrible. And what about speakers that can HANDLE live singing? You TV speaker and even $10k home theater speakers can't.
There is an App that allows Karaoke on your AppleTV that uses your iPhone as a mic. It is HORRIBLE. The sound is delayed by a split second and throws everything off. Plus the sound quality is crap. There are too many limitations. The iPhone mic is not good enough. Wireless is not fast enough to reproduce your voice without delay or cutouts. Try recording your singing using your iPhone, its crap. You need a real mic. Plus your speaker will get destroyed eventually unless the app is converting your voice to compressed audio on the fly. And thats why there is a delay.
There is so much synergy between various Apple hardware and services, and such an opportunity for Apple to provide a fun, fantastic experience, which competitors can't match, IMO it's crazy that Apple hasn't made a karaoke app yet. A huge missed opportunity.
To address your points.. they don't seem to be significant barriers. There's a lot of different ways Apple could approach it.. separate subscription for karaoke compatible songs, fold it into a specialized services plan that includes Apple Music, a la carte fees that are billed weekly or something.. Apple already has lyrics to most songs in Apple Music, shouldn't be impossible to do a karaoke app, and add voice synthesizing/blending software. There must be a way to have basic functionality with using an iPhone mic, but of course Apple could pre-arrange hardware to be made by a 3rd party (like they have done for iPad keyboards for example); or make any extra hardware themselves if it's really necessary.
You can't use an iPhone as a mic. The quality is HORRIBLE. Plus there is massive lag using an iPhone as a Mic. MASSIVE. The #1 Karaoke App on iPhone (Sing) has an AppleTV app and its horrible. The problem is your voice needs to picked up by your iPhone, sent through your wifi to the AppleTV, then the AppleTV needs to compress the audio, then play it on your TV. It takes WAY TOO LONG. Lag. Horrible lag. Have you ever tried Karaoke where there is a split second lag? Horrible. I used ethernet cable and there is still lag.
You also need specialized speakers. Because you TV speakers or home theater speakers are not made for uncompressed audio. They will literally DESTROY your speakers.
What you are talking about is ALREADY avaliable on Youtube for FREE. Go to youtube, search for any song and there will be a karaoke version. Then make a playlist and add all your favorite songs. No one is going to pay for Karaoke video's when you can get it absolutely free on Youtube.
Again go to the Youtube App on AppleTV and say: My Way Karaoke........ You will get a dozen Karaoke videos to sing My Way. Many with lyrics that get highlighted with each word. Add it to your playlist. Done. An Apple App won't be much better than this and won't be free.
Go try it and see how HORRIBLE it is to use your iPhone as a mic. The tech is just not ready.
Maybe some day the technology will be fast enough to pick up your voice on your iPhone Mic, send it to your AppleTV, and then compress the audio before sending it to your TV speakers. Some day. But not now. Its not even close. There has to be virtually ZERO lag to make Karaoke work. And we are not even close to that point right now.
I believe you that the current tech doesn't cut it. But there has to be a way for Apple to get this done. Apple's image processing is astounding; I've got to believe there's a way they can work their magic with audio. Anyway, in the meantime, I'll definitely check out youtube.
It appears that whatever Apple's original intentions for the ATV were squashed when content and cable companies said "hell no". No tech company will get the keys to the kingdom any time soon. Meanwhile we all get yet another remote to scramble for when we sit in front of the box.
The only thing that really matters in this segment is content. Without good deals in place a competitor is dead in the water.
To me UI is every bit as important if Apple Intends Apple Tv to be portal to entertianment....
The messy, fragmented ui now falls short almost in every way... poorly thought out... missing key features..and poor ergonomics of remote...
Its not a pleasent experiance...
Loads of content and no ui to support discovery, organization and notifications will just makes things messier ...
UI is the base to build the rest on.. imo.
Apple TV is not a bad product, it's just a little dated at the moment (4K and HDR will bring it up-to-date). In order for it to be a breakout hit, however, Apple needs to "give it away." And by give it away, I mean charge more for it. Here's how:
Advertise a program that allows people to head down to their local Apple Store or Best Buy and pick up an Apple TV Gen 5 plus Apple game controller for just $9.99/month for 24 months, no money down. Further, with this deal, subscribers get a 3-month trial of Apple Music for free.
People don't want to plunk down hundreds of dollars at a store to take home a set-top box, no matter what it does. Unlike iPhones, set-top boxes are boring bricks that gather dust by the TV. Comcast hands everybody one "for free".
Apple needs to "give Apple TV away", while making better margins on it than they ever have before, and simultaneously adding subscribers to Apple Music. It's not the gadget that's the problem, because Apple TV is honestly rather nice.
Fix the business model!
pretty good idea.
$9.99 per month. Of course you would need to do credit checks on all of these
Ditto 👍👍 but the UI is very poorly thought out.. that is an area that needs serious work. Its a fragmented experiance now... in every way....
Apple TV is not a bad product, it's just a little dated at the moment (4K and HDR will bring it up-to-date). In order for it to be a breakout hit, however, Apple needs to "give it away." And by give it away, I mean charge more for it. Here's how:
Advertise a program that allows people to head down to their local Apple Store or Best Buy and pick up an Apple TV Gen 5 plus Apple game controller for just $9.99/month for 24 months, no money down. Further, with this deal, subscribers get a 3-month trial of Apple Music for free.
People don't want to plunk down hundreds of dollars at a store to take home a set-top box, no matter what it does. Unlike iPhones, set-top boxes are boring bricks that gather dust by the TV. Comcast hands everybody one "for free".
Apple needs to "give Apple TV away", while making better margins on it than they ever have before, and simultaneously adding subscribers to Apple Music. It's not the gadget that's the problem, because Apple TV is honestly rather nice.
Fix the business model!
Gurman also wrote that "while the Apple TV itself isn't critical to Apple's bottom line, it's central to the company's services business because increasingly the living room is where consumers buy, rent and consume media. Services represented almost $25 billion in revenue for Apple in the last fiscal year, making it the company's second biggest category after the iPhone."
— weren't services mostly accessed via mobile devices like iphone, ipad and macbook? 🤔
I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think Sog35 has a point.
AppleTV is one of the cheaper set top boxes you can buy, and I think part of the reason that it attracts such hatred around here is the same reason why the Macbook Pro brings the same vitriol: the person who would buy this box is not the same person who hangs around in a forum complaining how crap it is.
I have a hard time pinning exactly what Apple's core customer is, other than knowing that it isn't here. But I think I can pin down one facet of a true Apple customer: he leaves the house regularly. The Apple customer is young and mobile. And so their use of a set top box is going to be very … occasional. They will sit down, watch one episode of something and then get up and do something else. They're not prone to sit in front of the TV and channel hop; they know what they want to watch before they sit down.
This is a box aimed at the casual user.
Folk need to learn that Apple isn't building kit just for them. In fact, they may have to learn that Apple is building nothing for them at all.
Folks, what we're looking at here is the investment bankers attempting to blackmail Apple with all the finesse and subtlety of a rugby tackle.
What they're saying is, "Let us handle your acquisitions and pay us millions to do it, or we will crank up the fake failure narrative."
I don't think I've seen a company attract such greed, but then again there are few companies sitting on such a huge pile of cash.
Yep you nailed it,
The M&A community wants their hands on Apple Money and they hate the fact they go directly to companies to buy them cutting out the who M&A community. I just wish Apple would pull a Trump on their folks. You know if Steve was around he would tell them all to go f themselves. Part of the reason Apple stock have been held back is do to the fact Apple does not play nicely with Wall Street, they want to know about new products and Apple business plans which Apple never shares.
Yes, I used to wonder why Apple didn't attack the press. Then I watched Trump do it for 75 minutes, and I realised why: it makes you look petulant and a little bit whiney.
Once again, the vast majority that are "critical" about the article completely avoid the main point - that Apple is criticized for failing to revolutionize TV when in fact no other company has either. It would be fair if Roku as example was building a commanding lead in sales, profit, and mind share with a multi billion $ per year business. That isn't happening - for anyone. Perhaps there is a reason for that - the market is not there (yet - maybe never will be, but I hope so).
There is of course fair criticism that can be levelled at the AppleTV 4 given its intended functions: - remote is not the most ergonomic, and a few more buttons (like the 4 arrows now gone) could help - removing the optical audio out port hardly seemed necessary for a more premium streaming box (even though small number would use) - I am not a big fan of the new UI (preferred the ATV 2/3 version) - the gaming controller and Siri remote requirement was a problem, but since rectified. May have stymied good games in beginning though - perhaps not Apple's fault, but number of non US services integrated with universal search is almost non existent
Lots of complaints here are about ATV not being capable of full functionality in accessing content on home computers. That has never been the core target of the device from beginning. In fact it is much more capable with supporting apps now, and Plex app in particular. The fact that search of own content should not be a surprise, since that requires consistent metadata. Think of the nightmare/impossibility that would be to implement consistently across millions of individuals. Hell, most services have not yet implemented support for universal search.
Looking across the competition, ATV4 seems to have more functionality overall than the rest though (SSO, voice search, universal search, motion sensitive remote with touch screen, full Apps platform, integrated with iOS apps, TV app,...). It is priced higher as well, so better is expected.
We use ours everyday. In fact, my video provider has a full app for ATV now, and I use that to access all of the on demand content, since the app is faster and easier than using the cable STB remote and it's app implementation. Siri input is quite useful here, and text entry via remote app.
The general thrust of the discussion here, and the lame, defensive comebacks, tell me that AppleTV (in its current form) is pretty much a slowly-fading exercise in mediocrity -- by Apple's standards.
Comments
Yep you nailed it,
The M&A community wants their hands on Apple Money and they hate the fact they go directly to companies to buy them cutting out the who M&A community. I just wish Apple would pull a Trump on their folks. You know if Steve was around he would tell them all to go f themselves. Part of the reason Apple stock have been held back is do to the fact Apple does not play nicely with Wall Street, they want to know about new products and Apple business plans which Apple never shares.
This is a market that is prime for disruption -- and disruptive innovation typically comes from the low end. An on-demand, a la carte model just has to be "good enough" to fill smaller and more focused/selective needs for people who aren't coming close to consuming what they're paying for today. The channel numbers behind the big bulk packaging are largely meaningless to me, and I suspect others. If I'm only watching 5 shows a week, 3 or which are only on sat/cable, having a 300 channel package does not deliver more value to me and I'd rather be paying $25 a month for the few shows I watch instead of $100 a month so I have 295 other shows available to me that I am totally uninterested in ever watching.
I think there's a lesson to be learned from the success of iTunes and music that may be applicable, with the right granularity of pricing, to the delivery of other content, like TV, movies, events, etc.
Folks as a person who has been in the whole video delivery system off and on for last 20 yrs I can tell there is more to this than what we see today.
The issue we dealing with is no one know how the next video delivery system will work or look like. I can tell Apple is playing a wait and see approach because making the wrong bet too soon could cause them to waste lots of time and money, yeah they have lots of money but you do not want to be on the wrong platform if the market head in a different direction. Apple's App approach to TV seem to be in the right directions especially with the FCC saying all content owners and content delivery owners must provide and free app to watch content. Right now Apple has the best solution out there. Yes there are product today which work better than what app has today but as this market evolves some of the other solutions maybe in trouble. Apple single logon solves lots of problems no one else has this solution. TV app, single logon, universal search, and live content is the solution and no one else has all 4.
I was going to say something earlier but got sidetracked with work stuff.
but the UI is very poorly thought out.. that is an area that needs serious work. Its a fragmented experiance now... in every way....
AppleTV is one of the cheaper set top boxes you can buy, and I think part of the reason that it attracts such hatred around here is the same reason why the Macbook Pro brings the same vitriol: the person who would buy this box is not the same person who hangs around in a forum complaining how crap it is.
I have a hard time pinning exactly what Apple's core customer is, other than knowing that it isn't here. But I think I can pin down one facet of a true Apple customer: he leaves the house regularly. The Apple customer is young and mobile. And so their use of a set top box is going to be very … occasional. They will sit down, watch one episode of something and then get up and do something else. They're not prone to sit in front of the TV and channel hop; they know what they want to watch before they sit down.
This is a box aimed at the casual user.
Folk need to learn that Apple isn't building kit just for them. In fact, they may have to learn that Apple is building nothing for them at all.
There is of course fair criticism that can be levelled at the AppleTV 4 given its intended functions:
- remote is not the most ergonomic, and a few more buttons (like the 4 arrows now gone) could help
- removing the optical audio out port hardly seemed necessary for a more premium streaming box (even though small number would use)
- I am not a big fan of the new UI (preferred the ATV 2/3 version)
- the gaming controller and Siri remote requirement was a problem, but since rectified. May have stymied good games in beginning though
- perhaps not Apple's fault, but number of non US services integrated with universal search is almost non existent
Lots of complaints here are about ATV not being capable of full functionality in accessing content on home computers. That has never been the core target of the device from beginning. In fact it is much more capable with supporting apps now, and Plex app in particular. The fact that search of own content should not be a surprise, since that requires consistent metadata. Think of the nightmare/impossibility that would be to implement consistently across millions of individuals. Hell, most services have not yet implemented support for universal search.
Looking across the competition, ATV4 seems to have more functionality overall than the rest though (SSO, voice search, universal search, motion sensitive remote with touch screen, full Apps platform, integrated with iOS apps, TV app,...). It is priced higher as well, so better is expected.
We use ours everyday. In fact, my video provider has a full app for ATV now, and I use that to access all of the on demand content, since the app is faster and easier than using the cable STB remote and it's app implementation. Siri input is quite useful here, and text entry via remote app.