When is Apple TV going to grow up? Apple’s official hobby has been around in one form or another since early 2007. In technology years, Apple TV should be an adult already.
Instead, Apple TV remains an adolescent, an immature device with much promise and potential, a product that gets used by Apple faithful who long for it to do more than it actually does.
A Profitable Hobby
Apple co-founder Steve Jobs told his biographer that he’d cracked the problem of television, although he didn’t say how, or when the solution would arrive (if ever; that was how Jobs rolled).
In the meantime, Apple TV lumbers along, acting more like a teenager with a summer job, getting it done, but always looking forward to the future.
Apple also launched the iPhone in 2007. Look at how far the iPhone and iPad have progressed in a few short years. What of Apple TV?
Other than AirPlay and far less storage, Apple TV today performs much as it did back in 2007 (a 40GB hard disk, followed by a 160GB hard disk, followed by a far smaller flash drive).
The latest Apple TV is much smaller than the original and now streams media via internet and AirPlay, but still sports a remarkably simple interface which is integrated into Mac, iPad, and iPhone.
Apple TV’s interface is elegant, simple, user friendly to a fault. All those app and media icons on the television screen look inviting, but there’s more disappointment than satisfaction.
Wherefore Art Thou, DVR?
The saving grace for Apple TV today is AirPlay, which lets you stream HD media from iPhone and iPad (and Mac) to your widescreen HDMI-enabled television.
Otherwise, that screen full of apps collectively are less than meets the eye. Netflix and Hulu Plus and YouTube are useful. Many of the other channels require you to have a cable TV account already (if I have cable, what’s the point of having Apple TV?).
The rest of the channel app lineup is nice, but hardly worth cutting the cord and ditching cable TV. Similar content is available in smart TV’s from Samsung, Vizio, and many other manufacturers already. Google’s Chromecast device, which works similarly to the $99 Apple TV, is smaller and about one-third the price.
The most glaring functionality missing from Apple TV is a DVR. Many cable TV companies charge a monthly fee to use their built-in DVR. Apple would prefer that we buy or rent movies and TV shows and stream them to our televisions over Apple TV. Why? That’s how Apple makes money.
The Future Is On Demand
Apple sells a few million Apple TV units each year, so it’s likely a mildly profitable device for our favorite Mac maker. It’s just that Apple TV doesn’t yet do much, and it’s the one device we want to see do more.
What do Apple TV users want?
Allow me to insert my own perspective and desire into the equation. I want instant TV and movies, on demand, all the time. Any TV show or movie or newscast or concert or special could be made available, on demand from a giant Apple library-cum-server farm, with a click– that would negate the need for a DVR function. It would also clog the internet with streaming media overnight, so maybe there’s some merit to Apple’s tip-toe approach to Apple TV.
Apple TV is nice, probably worth the $99 price tag, especially with AirPlay from iPad and iPhone, but it just needs to do more.
Ray Swartz says
You seem to miss the obvious. Apple knows how to transform the living room and make the TV experience everyone wants. But they are blocked from doing that by the powerful media corporations like GE, Newscorp, Disney, Viacom, Time-Warner, and CBS and their deals with cable companies. They are the ones preventing us from buying entertainment a la carte, like you want.
Chas says
Perhaps so, but isn’t it Apple’s job to overcome those problems and present an elegant, affordable, and desirable solution to customers?
It ain’t Apple TV.
Apple may have enough money to buy most of the world’s TV content. The problem is that video– TV shows and movies– have so many players all of which have their money-grubbing hands in the pie. Apple is as much part of the problem as the solution.
Technology isn’t the issue. Apple’s forte is bringing together all the disparate pieces into a solution that’s better than the sum of the parts.
It ain’t Apple TV.
Doug Petrosky says
Wow!!! do you not get it!!
In one paragraph you say that the need for cable negates the value of many tiles on the AppleTV and in the next you say the glaring omission is DVR functionality? You know that DVR functionality would be very limited without a cable subscription right?
You stumble around a bit and end with the dream of Apple having a huge library of content you can stream on demand anywhere any time…….um…….THAT IS WHAT iTunes is!!!!!
I cut the cord 3.5 years ago and never looked back. You say the content is “hardly worth cutting the cord for” how did you come to that conclusion when you say you want what I have? I pay between 20 and 40/season of TV shows. Average that out and we will say $30. At $90/month for DirectTV, that is 36 full seasons of TV shows each year, COMMERCIAL FREE!! OWNED FOR LIFE and playable on dozens of devices. I choose to add in Netflix (although I may shift to Amazon prime to save the $9/month). Do you really think you watch more than 36 new release seasons of TV every year? Count them up and let us know.
Are there holes in the lineup? Sure, but they are few and far between. The big one is NFL and I use an off air antenna to deal with that. The problem is not that AppleTV doesn’t do what it needs to do, it is that you are unwilling to change your habits to get the most out of what it does.
macmeister says
AppleTV is a waste. The selections are nominal at best, navigation is slow, updates infrequent. If you want any volume of TV then Apple’s TV is not an appealing substitute. There are a few hundred million cable subscribers in the U.S. and a few million AppleTV owners, so Apple has a long way to go to get any kind of critical mass and the current offering of apps and channels is pretty thin by most standards. And no live TV or local TV at all. Cut the cable cord? I don’t think so.
Barry Whitelaw says
AppleTV needs for Apple to allow user apps, and the most obvious one being Plex. Yes, using PlexConnect we get the end result, but if they allowed user apps via an app store then I think they would sell a lot more, and have a happier user base. As it is, I love the little puck, but I live in hope for an open system eventually!