Japhey

Beats said:

mpantone said:

Beats said:

Making a worse Apple TV isn’t the solution. Make a premium version for once!

Apple has a conundrum with its Apple TV hardware. Displaying video content (TV shows, movies, etc.) doesn't require powerful silicon.

The 1080p Roku stick is $25 at Amazon; last year's 4K version is $34. You can buy one of each for the price of an Apple TV remote. So any recent A-series SoC has enough horsepower; it can even be a heavily binned sample with some CPU and GPU cores disabled. A premium priced Apple TV doesn't provide any benefit to Joe Consumer in terms of watching video. A 16-core M-series SoC isn't going to make that latest Marvel Comics movie look any better.

However Apple is also marketing Apple TV as a casual gaming console. This does require more graphics horsepower but since the Apple Arcade games are relatively lightweight, today's Apple TV doesn't need to compete technology-wise with the Xbox Series X|S or the PlayStation 5.

If you get a $500 Xbox Series X and subscribe to Xbox Game Pass, how appealing would an $800 Apple TV with an Apple Arcade+ subscription look? And what if you can AirPlay your iPhone to your television set and play games on that instead?

If Apple wants to pursue the videogame market, they will likely need separate video streaming hardware and videogame playing hardware.

The biggest issue is original content. Apple doesn't have enough compelling exclusive games for a $300+ console to survive today. Remember that at that price level, they would be competing with Nintendo Switch which has sold over 110 million units between the original and OLED models.

Remember that another competitor is Nvidia Shield ($150, thirty dollars cheaper than the entry-level Apple TV 4K box) which runs GeForce NOW at 120Hz with the 3080 subscription.

Apple will need to double down on original videogame content if they are going to compete in that market. They will also need to consider pricing very carefully because there are compelling alternatives where Apple TV is already priced.

Videogame industry revenue surpassed Hollywood box office revenue back in the Nineties so it's clear to Apple where people's eyeballs are spending.

I agree with this and everything has a solution (which is scary if you think 500 years ahead).

The 4K Apple TV is too expensive. They should drop the price to $99 and keep it to only 32GB. This would be the “base” Apple TV. Then if they decided, the can make a cheaper option that is $49 with no remote or those original AppleTV remotes.

Here’s where it gets fun:
Apple can then develop a high end device for the rest of us. The crappy Arcade dilemma also has a solution.

Speculators have come up with some pretty cool names.

Apple TV Pro
and
Apple Arcade+

The Pro version can have an M1 Pro and 256GB hard drive. With Arcade being partly streamed and iCloud, it in theory could be sufficient space.

Now Apple can hire big studios to create big games for Arcade+. The subscription would be higher like $9.99 and included with Apple One high tiers.

I don’t know where you got that $800 number from. I’d imagine it being closer to $499. 

The problem didn’t seem to be with limitations or pricing but with Apple just not caring enough for gaming. They have more money than MS/Sony/Nintendo but aren’t willing to spend it on high end studios or original titles.

neo-tech said:

tokyojimu said:

I like the way Lightning cables snap into place. USB-C is inferior. 

Agreed. I like the simplicity of one connector for all, but I have a few devices with rather loose USB C sockets, and I've not owned a single lightning port device with a loose connection.

Beats said:

Sucks. I should have bought one last month. 

randominternetperson said:

Such a weird concept that there would be a division solely to employ a handful of problem children within MI5. You’d think they’d just fire them (or feed them to the Dogs) or that there would be way too many people for one tiny office. 

But an entertaining show nonetheless. 

Quite a twist at the end of season 1…

welshdog said:

Japhey said:

welshdog said:

Japhey said:

9secondkox2 said:

Just another reason the metaverse is a failure in concept. 

The metaverse concept is a failure just because one company is hypocritically charging creators too much? I’m not following the logic here. The metaverse, or whatever it ends up being called, is the future and it is inevitable. That’s why literally every single tech company on the planet is working on a version of it. 

Lots of companies were conviced 3D television was the future too.

So what? A does not equal b. Why do you people have such a hard time with that?

Didn't say A=B. What I said is companies can be wrong. Why do you have such poor comprehension?