thadgarrison

Apple should use the room correction technology they built for HomePod and build a truly useful product: HomePod Cinema — a home theater soundbar with Atmos, best-in-class sound, simple setup and an Apple TV baked in. Setting up audio for a home theatre and getting it to sound good (even with many of today’s soundbars) is complex and annoying. Apple is great at taking existing categories and perfecting them. Surely with the new investment in Apple TV+, they have even more reason to bring a great steaming delivery product to market. Plus so many interesting home control opportunities when a screen is attached and you don't need to talk into that god-awful remote. 

“Indeed, the rainbow's colors mimic those of the company's iconic logo, albeit in brighter shades.”

The colors in the video are badly blown out from over saturation. I’m willing to bet the actual colors are Pantone-perfect matches to the rainbow logo knowing Ive’s perfectionism.

Unlike the story of the iPad, Apple has been way behind the curve on software services for years. They’re playing catch-up, not blazing a new trail. Many of Apple’s software services were disastrous at launch (MobileMe, Maps), some have improved but still aren’t great experiences (iCloud, Apple Music). Messages is really the only service that has been a runaway success and is truly pleasant to use.

When people and the press look at Apple’s services play with a critical eye, it’s not because they aren’t smart enough to imagine a world in which Apple makes a fortune from services, it’s because Apple has historically been bad at services and other companies (Amazon, Netflix, Google, Facebook) are way ahead. Apple has the money to figure it out and make boatloads of cash, but they’ve yet to prove it’s in their DNA the way hardware and software design are. In fact, they seem to be outright bad at expansive projects that require loosening the reigns to account for a huge variety of user need. It’s almost as if they give up when they realize they can’t have finite control down to the nth detail and you get sloppy garbage like the iTunes Store or Music. The good news in there is lots of room for improvement in the world of software services and Apple is great at reinvention, I just wonder if their heart is in it.

Apple should not be in the content creation space. It’s not their forte, it’s not their brand and they aren’t cut out for the loose messiness required. Micromanaging content guarantees awful, anodyne output. They should stick to licensing and curating. 

aaarrrgggh said:

seanismorris said:

In times like these you want Cook over Jobs as CEO.

But do you really?  They are apparently investing a lot in video... does Cook have the “vision” there, because it appears to be a major bet for the company.

Meh, considering that Netflix’s entire market cap is $153.24B and Apple brought in REVENUE of $266B in in 2018 alone, it’s not that big of a bet for the company. Amazon runs a video streaming platform on the side and gives it away for free. It mostly sucks, but it can’t be that big a bet if they can do that. Something like Apple Car would be a big bet, video is more along the lines of Music.