Goaltender66
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Bloomberg attacks Apple TV as failing to be "a groundbreaking, iPhone-caliber product"
Hello,
I've been an AppleTV user since the 2nd generation box came out. I don't know about it being earth-shattering, but it sure did change my household. I started out using it as a way to stream my movies off iTunes via HomeShare, then 2 years ago it matured enough where I discontinued my cable TV service. And I like the platform enough where I've been replacing my box each time a new one comes out, and currently use the 4th generation box.
From where I sit, it isn't Apple that is failing to be transformative, but content providers who are standing in the way of the market evolving. I believe the market is slowly but surely moving toward on demand streaming, but the legacy providers are resistant to that kind of change. Cable companies resisting ala carte pricing models is one example (why should I pay for HGTV if I never watch it....?). Similarly, if you want to stream content the default is to have an existing cable tv subscription. True transformation isn't going to happen until that default model is shattered. Apple can only push the string so far with that. I really think that in time, content providers will face the same choice that smartphone makers faced ten years ago: either adapt to Apple's vision, or watch your market share disappear. But we aren't there yet, and won't be for some time. Right now streaming packages from the major players (DirecTV Now....) tend to be repackagings of the cable tv model...pay a bunch of money for a bunch of channels.
So I like what I'm seeing with AppleTV. I think the TV app is a valiant effort in the face of resistant content providers and does have a lot of promise. On the other hand, companies like Netflix aren't eager to just hand off customers to the TV app...they want to control the interface and user experience too.
Long way of saying, I didn't go into AppleTV expecting it to be earth-shattering, but it is a product that does exactly what I want it to do. It has potential, but Apple is facing a different market in TV than it faced ten years ago with the iPhone.
