Netflix and others need to redesign the UI but I think they are using Apple UI components so it may not be their fault?
It’s the fault of Netflix only. Their app is infinitely more user friendly on the locked down ATV3 with Apple UI template. Netflix have no clue how to design a UI.
In five years or less, all of these add-on devices will be superfluous unless there is a compelling value-add to the box. Virtually every TV now sold streams without the need for an Apple TV or a Fire or a Roku. In a few years, they all will. Frankly, it is easier for me to use the streaming services built in to the TV and I get some semblance of 4K. I only use my ATV now for the apps that are not built in to the TV. Seamless integration with HomePods, Home Kit devices and Air Play may be the reason ATVs are around in a few years when all the others have died away.
Apple should release a great TV with a good first party gaming controller and a redesigned, more rebost remote.
In five years or less, all of these add-on devices will be superfluous unless there is a compelling value-add to the box. Virtually every TV now sold streams without the need for an Apple TV or a Fire or a Roku. In a few years, they all will. Frankly, it is easier for me to use the streaming services built in to the TV and I get some semblance of 4K. I only use my ATV now for the apps that are not built in to the TV. Seamless integration with HomePods, Home Kit devices and Air Play may be the reason ATVs are around in a few years when all the others have died away.
Apple should release a great TV with a good first party gaming controller and a redesigned, more rebost remote.
100% Agree. With more and more smart tv's having the streaming apps built-in, I think it's time Apple builds their own-branded Smart TV.
We know how much Apple values market share as measure of success.
Having said that, a little advertising would help. Perhaps when the new version gets rolled out?
With Apple, it's always about declining market share. Just hearing the term "declining market share" makes me know they're talking about Apple. Has Apple ever had "increasing market share" in anything over the last few years? I'm happy to be an Apple shareholder but I never knew that Apple would always be losing market share to every other company on the planet. This should be Apple's motto, "We're losing market share and we're proud of it." It's downright sickening to hear when Apple has an abundance of wealth and resources yet keeps losing out to smaller rivals. I stupidly never knew market share percentage was Wall Street's most important metric for valuing a company.
I have a Fire TV Stick, the Original, and it's Dog Slow. The first time I used it, it worked OK, but the second time, it was slow. It had trouble even playing their own Amazon Prime content. I have to go to my ROKU 3 which played it just fine. I have a couple Apple TV 4's and a Apple TV3. I think the Apple TV is a better streaming Box, at least #4. The Apple TV 3, the ROKU was better. Once Apple opened it up and added the App store, it made the Apple TV much better. I think PLEX is the best on it. Most services anyone care about are on Apple TV now. The one lacking that will be on Apple TV soon is Amazon Prime!!! That's the only thing I still use the ROKU for.
Apple I think has a much better App development community. There's a few old games on the ROKU, but there's quite a few great games on AppleTV. I think the only thing that's keeping sales SLOW is being one of the most costly devices. It's in the $150-$200 price range. Most everything else is in the $30-$100 area. Price has a big effect on sales.
Apple needs to come up with a services & subscription oriented strategy that allows than to give away the Apple TV for free.
If Apple is serious about expanding its service and subscription offerings broadly across music, original content TV/movies, education, training, home automation (HomeKit Plus), interactive meeting/presentation services (FaceTime on Steroids), interactive online healthcare services (including diagnostics, monitoring, analytics, doctor-patient interaction, pre-visit patient surveys, follow-up on lab reports, etc.), and general IOT connectivity the Apple TV is the natural edge device to deliver such services, all of which can be subscription or pay-as-you-go based. Securely link the TouchId and/or face recognition feature from iPhone/iPad/Apple Watch/Next-gen Apple TV Remote with Apple Pay enabled on Apple TV to make everything seamless and secure from end-to-end.
With Apple TV being Apple's primary home-based vehicle for service delivery the cost of the device itself becomes irrelevant compared to the potential revenue from service subscriptions and pay-per use. Give it away.
The main reason I didn't replace my Apple TV from 2010 is because Apple removed the optical audio output, which means I wouldn't be able to connect a new Apple TV directly to my stereo when I'm streaming iTunes.
That's not really a very good reason. For around $20 a simple adapter can be purchased to allow an optical audio output to be split off an HDMI input, which itself is passed on through to the TV.
Revolutionizing the television watching experience is I think Apple's biggest missed opportunity in the past few years. There were all of these rumors about the "car" and competing with Amazon and Netflix on content creation, while the Apple TV barely changed and didn't become nearly what it could have.
I'm not clear what you think it nearly could have become, can you clarify?
Apple continues to ignore the basics. MacPro updates? Mac Mini Updates? Truly moving the MacBook Pro forward technologically? No, no, no. Please Mr. Cook, a little attention to the foundational products. Airports? pretty much dead.
Surely you aren't the market waiting for updates to all those things. If you are sitting around waiting for those products to update, I am truly sorry that these first world problems beset you.
We know how much Apple values market share as measure of success.
Having said that, a little advertising would help. Perhaps when the new version gets rolled out?
With Apple, it's always about declining market share. Just hearing the term "declining market share" makes me know they're talking about Apple. Has Apple ever had "increasing market share" in anything over the last few years? I'm happy to be an Apple shareholder but I never knew that Apple would always be losing market share to every other company on the planet. This should be Apple's motto, "We're losing market share and we're proud of it." It's downright sickening to hear when Apple has an abundance of wealth and resources yet keeps losing out to smaller rivals. I stupidly never knew market share percentage was Wall Street's most important metric for valuing a company.
Tablets is one area where ALL competitors have literally given up and Apple is close to a "monopoly".
I live in Germany. I watch content in English. All the time. Problems with Apple TV: 1) no 4K streaming 2) no Amazon app 3) remote problematic in the dark and too sensitive 4) content on the iTunes Store very expensive 5) content is not offered even in original english language and not even with english subtitles (which help when keeping volume down at night, and which are available in *all* DVDs/Blu-Rays out there) 6) no HBO and related content - thanks to Sky dictating what people have to watch in continental Europe 7) no universal search (stuff is not available for rent on iTunes store, but can be streamed from Netflix)
When the new AppleTV comes out, hopefully 4K support is added and all existing content you have already purchased will be upgraded at no cost. If they start charging extra money for stuff you already own to see it in 4K, no reason to upgrade. BTW: streaming in 4K to my UHD TV works really well.
It seems Apple doesn’t have a clue what it wants to do in this space. When the current Apple TV was released Tim Cook said the future of TV is apps. Are there any metrics that show people are using apps on Apple TV outside of content streaming apps? Now Apple is hiring content guys and allegedly spending up to $1B on original programming. But so far all the original programming sits inside of Apple Music. The whole thing seems a mess. Can Tim offer Eddy Cue early retirement or something?
The main reason I didn't replace my Apple TV from 2010 is because Apple removed the optical audio output, which means I wouldn't be able to connect a new Apple TV directly to my stereo when I'm streaming iTunes.
That's not really a very good reason. For around $20 a simple adapter can be purchased to allow an optical audio output to be split off an HDMI input, which itself is passed on through to the TV.
Is there a reason people want to use optical rather than connect the ATV to an HDMI input in their receiver? Is it just due to having an old receiver without the needed HDMI inputs? All my devices input into my receiver, with a single output to the TV. For over-the-air TV-tuner audio I have an output from the TV going back into the receiver.
I live in Germany. I watch content in English. All the time. Problems with Apple TV: 1) no 4K streaming 2) no Amazon app 3) remote problematic in the dark and too sensitive 4) content on the iTunes Store very expensive 5) content is not offered even in original english language and not even with english subtitles (which help when keeping volume down at night, and which are available in *all* DVDs/Blu-Rays out there) 6) no HBO and related content - thanks to Sky dictating what people have to watch in continental Europe 7) no universal search (stuff is not available for rent on iTunes store, but can be streamed from Netflix)
When the new AppleTV comes out, hopefully 4K support is added and all existing content you have already purchased will be upgraded at no cost. If they start charging extra money for stuff you already own to see it in 4K, no reason to upgrade. BTW: streaming in 4K to my UHD TV works really well.
Nearly all of your items aren't the Apple TV, but instead restrictions of app & content suppliers and license holders. 4K is coming once the iTunes library is upgraded. Agreed on the remote being poorly shaped (I use a rubber band to distinguish one end).
It seems Apple doesn’t have a clue what it wants to do in this space. When the current Apple TV was released Tim Cook said the future of TV is apps. Are there any metrics that show people are using apps on Apple TV outside of content streaming apps?
What on earth do you believe "apps" means if not content streaming? Even my 70-year-old mother is watching her content (mostly the Netflix app) rather than cable. That's apps, dude. Netflix, Amazon, HBO, Hulu, MLB, etc.. All apps.
Digital, on-demand, app-based viewing is definitely the future, and OTA and cable broadcast is the past. Obviously that doesn't mean an entire shift in the entire population overnight, but the writing is clearly on the wall.
Apple needs to come up with a services & subscription oriented strategy that allows than to give away the Apple TV for free.
If Apple is serious about expanding its service and subscription offerings broadly across music, original content TV/movies, education, training, home automation (HomeKit Plus), interactive meeting/presentation services (FaceTime on Steroids), interactive online healthcare services (including diagnostics, monitoring, analytics, doctor-patient interaction, pre-visit patient surveys, follow-up on lab reports, etc.), and general IOT connectivity the Apple TV is the natural edge device to deliver such services, all of which can be subscription or pay-as-you-go based. Securely link the TouchId and/or face recognition feature from iPhone/iPad/Apple Watch/Next-gen Apple TV Remote with Apple Pay enabled on Apple TV to make everything seamless and secure from end-to-end.
With Apple TV being Apple's primary home-based vehicle for service delivery the cost of the device itself becomes irrelevant compared to the potential revenue from service subscriptions and pay-per use. Give it away.
If they had something like a $20/month subscription, they could give the box away with it (maybe $50 upfront) and it would be paid up in the first year while offering Netflix-style content. Even if they could offer up to 10 movie rentals per month or 20 TV shows from iTunes included with the subscription, that would be worth the money because it would be new content. They can build up a large enough library of content in the first year at a loss e.g $5b for 3 years of licensed content. They'd sell about 10m units per year so $2.4b revenue every year. HEVC encoded content to any Mac/PC/browser/AppleTV.
Concerning the current Apple TV, there's another source of marketshare here (dark blue shows total):
It looks pretty competitive with everything else on the market considering how much higher the price is. US numbers also don't reflect the rest of the world, Roku is in 10 countries, Apple TV is in at least 80. It says here Apple sold 37m units:
They can easily fix minor issues like illuminated remote buttons or just luminescent paint. They can make 3rd party subscriptions easier to sign up to and more accessible so that it's more like a cable network by aggregating the subscription. Making an actual TV on top of the box could help boost adoption. Apple will have gotten feedback about the first app-based model, they can see what competing products are doing and they can address major issues with the next model as they usually do.
Comments
Apple I think has a much better App development community. There's a few old games on the ROKU, but there's quite a few great games on AppleTV. I think the only thing that's keeping sales SLOW is being one of the most costly devices. It's in the $150-$200 price range. Most everything else is in the $30-$100 area. Price has a big effect on sales.
If Apple is serious about expanding its service and subscription offerings broadly across music, original content TV/movies, education, training, home automation (HomeKit Plus), interactive meeting/presentation services (FaceTime on Steroids), interactive online healthcare services (including diagnostics, monitoring, analytics, doctor-patient interaction, pre-visit patient surveys, follow-up on lab reports, etc.), and general IOT connectivity the Apple TV is the natural edge device to deliver such services, all of which can be subscription or pay-as-you-go based. Securely link the TouchId and/or face recognition feature from iPhone/iPad/Apple Watch/Next-gen Apple TV Remote with Apple Pay enabled on Apple TV to make everything seamless and secure from end-to-end.
With Apple TV being Apple's primary home-based vehicle for service delivery the cost of the device itself becomes irrelevant compared to the potential revenue from service subscriptions and pay-per use. Give it away.
Tablets is one area where ALL competitors have literally given up and Apple is close to a "monopoly".
I live in Germany. I watch content in English. All the time.
Problems with Apple TV:
1) no 4K streaming
2) no Amazon app
3) remote problematic in the dark and too sensitive
4) content on the iTunes Store very expensive
5) content is not offered even in original english language and not even with english subtitles (which help when keeping volume down at night, and which are available in *all* DVDs/Blu-Rays out there)
6) no HBO and related content - thanks to Sky dictating what people have to watch in continental Europe
7) no universal search (stuff is not available for rent on iTunes store, but can be streamed from Netflix)
When the new AppleTV comes out, hopefully 4K support is added and all existing content you have already purchased will be upgraded at no cost.
If they start charging extra money for stuff you already own to see it in 4K, no reason to upgrade.
BTW: streaming in 4K to my UHD TV works really well.
Nearly all of your items aren't the Apple TV, but instead restrictions of app & content suppliers and license holders. 4K is coming once the iTunes library is upgraded. Agreed on the remote being poorly shaped (I use a rubber band to distinguish one end).
What on earth do you believe "apps" means if not content streaming? Even my 70-year-old mother is watching her content (mostly the Netflix app) rather than cable. That's apps, dude. Netflix, Amazon, HBO, Hulu, MLB, etc.. All apps.
Digital, on-demand, app-based viewing is definitely the future, and OTA and cable broadcast is the past. Obviously that doesn't mean an entire shift in the entire population overnight, but the writing is clearly on the wall.
What part do you doubt?
Concerning the current Apple TV, there's another source of marketshare here (dark blue shows total):
http://www.businessinsider.com/roku-vs-fire-tv-chromecast-apple-streaming-media-player-market-share-2017-7
It looks pretty competitive with everything else on the market considering how much higher the price is. US numbers also don't reflect the rest of the world, Roku is in 10 countries, Apple TV is in at least 80. It says here Apple sold 37m units:
https://www.strategyanalytics.com/strategy-analytics/news/strategy-analytics-press-releases/strategy-analytics-press-release/2016/03/08/chromecast-takes-35-of-the-42-million-unit-global-digital-media-streamer-market-in-2015-says-strategy-analytics
They can easily fix minor issues like illuminated remote buttons or just luminescent paint. They can make 3rd party subscriptions easier to sign up to and more accessible so that it's more like a cable network by aggregating the subscription. Making an actual TV on top of the box could help boost adoption. Apple will have gotten feedback about the first app-based model, they can see what competing products are doing and they can address major issues with the next model as they usually do.