Mark Gurman, Bloomberg:
Apple Inc. has hired Timothy D. Twerdahl, the former head of Amazon.com Inc.’s Fire TV unit, as a vice president in charge of Apple TV product marketing and shifted the executive who previously held the job to a spot negotiating media content deals.
The moves suggest a renewed focus on the Apple TV and on providing more content for the device, an effort that has been stalled in the past by failed negotiations.
This feels like a recognition that the Apple TV was stalled and a change to get things moving again.
The way this reads, Apple TV is getting a product leader who reports to Phil Schiller, while Eddy Cue’s group keeps control over dealmaking. I wonder if this means the Apple TV product will get more of a chance to be a good product, separate from Apple’s content deals. Too often the Apple TV has seemed like an empty box for Apple’s content deals (or would-be content deals), rather than a product that was striving to be the best it could be.
The Apple TV, while somewhat frustrating, has a lot of potential. Unfortunately, this is an area where Apple’s competition—from Amazon, Roku, and Google—is extremely strong, and with products that cost a fraction of what the Apple TV costs. The Apple TV’s strongest advantages right now are artificial ones, namely exclusive access to iTunes content and AirPlay. It’s not a bad box, but it needs to be better. Maybe this change is a sign that Apple knows that, too?
Exactly.
Sounds like good news. Hope we hear more about the Apple TV progress at the 2017 Dev Conf. Probably to much to hope for anything before that.
For someone like me, who’s not going to cut the cord anytime soon, I think that really the only thing that Apple TV needs now is an Amazon Prime app; and that’s really on Amazon more than Apple. I’ve got Plex and almost all the networks apps that I use (HBO, ESPN, NBC Sports). I guess really the only thing that would be cool to have would be more games.
I have an AppleTV, but I don’t use it much. Why? No spotify, no amazon prime, no 4K.
My Sony TV has all this built-in, plus the usual stuff (Netflix, Youtube, Plex, etc). The Android TV UI isn’t as nice as the Apple TV, but its good enough.
When they first released the new Apple TV, I really thought that the combination of the A8 chip and the Metal graphics API would make it an interesting alternative to the XBox One and PS4. But as far as I can tell, gameplay on the Apple TV has gone nowhere.
it’s entirely on Amazon. Apple plays no part in Amazon’s ability to build an app for streaming your Prime content.
for some reason Amazon hates its customers, and is refusing to provide this value add. probably in an attempt to work a deal w/ Apple on in-app purchases but who knows. the result is the same — Amazon is proving their interests are not aligned with their customers’.
so how do you access you Apple Music, and iTunes movie library on your Sony? oh yeah, you cant. so, same thing.
I don’t subscribe to Apple Music and I don’t have any iTunes movies. So, not the same thing.
That Amazon and Apple can’t agree on terms isn’t entirely on Amazon. Don’t know why you think Amazon should just roll over and concede to Apple’s terms no matter what.
But who’s “wrong” is beside the point: customers have a lot of other options that will do Amazon Video, Spotify, 4K, etc. Those options are almost all cheaper than Apple TV and often free (ie built into the TV or game console they already have). So Apple is in the tough position of having to explain to customers why they should buy their premium-priced device that effectively does less than the other guys’ boxes do.
The ATV is a product in search of a reason for being at this point. Before anyone hits Reply… I own an ATV 4.
I wanted Amazon Video since I’m a Prime member for other reasons. I grabbed a $40 Roku stick… and it does everything the ATV 4 does at 30% of the price as far as streaming. Netflix, Sling, Amazon,Hulu.. all there, all work as well or better than the ATV. No, it doesn’t do 4k. Neither does the ATV.
Competing with the ATV in price is the top of the line Roku… which does 4k, has voice search, has optical digital audio out… and is $20 less.
The only thing the ATV has that these don’t are the non-TV apps, but those seem to have a hard time getting traction since many of us who’d use the apps also have some kind of device with us when we watch TV and can always Airplay that to the TV.
Sadly, I think it’s too late for the ATV to be more than a ‘me too’ product at this point.
This is actually a negative for Apple. Unless someone refuses to even consider non-Apple alternatives they can choose Spotify over Apple Music. That is, people might say “Wait, I can use Spotify on more devices, in a mixed environment… why sub to AM, I’ll move to Spotify.”
If they’ve bought enough iTune movies, they can use an older ATV3 and get those that way. The ATV 4 has no compelling advantage aside from being Apple branded
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