“While we praised the latest Apple TV for its plethora of apps, we were disappointed by its lack of 4K support and exclusive content,” Henry T. Casey writes for Tom’s Guide. “Apple appears to be aware of this deficit, and is reportedly working to prioritize new content and features to bring the Apple TV closer to parity with Amazon Fire devices.”
“According to a Bloomberg report, Apple poached the former head of Amazon’s Fire TV division, Timothy D. Twerdahl,” Casey writes. “Twerdahl’s a streaming veteran, with prior experience as an executive at Netflix and as vice president of consumer devices at Roku.”
“Just as important, though, is that Pete Distad, the Apple exec who formerly held that position, is reportedly moving to a role where he will be ‘negotiating media content deals,'” Casey writes. “We’d love it if Twerdahl’s influence could bring 4K video to the Apple TV, as it’s one of the box’s biggest flaws and a major reason to choose an Amazon or Roku box. ”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: May Distad have much better success at negotiating media content deals for Apple TV than previous efforts.
SEE ALSO:
Apple hires Amazon’s Fire TV head to run Apple TV business – February 8, 2017
Google signs up CBS for planned web TV service to debut in early 2017; close to deal with 21st Century Fox – October 20, 2016
Apple’s Eddy Cue alienated cable providers and networks with an assertive negotiating style – report – July 28, 2016
Did Cue leave?
No, Pete Distad will be reporting to him.
Well, Apple TV may get better, but I’ve already moved on
Hello Roku!
Same here. ATV4 was lame and way behind the competition. Also way too pricey for mediocre performance.
I’ve gone Roku as well.
My Apple TV is still connected, but seldom used, Replaced it with a FireTV. Reasons:
Amazon Prime Video
Kodi
4K
Apple TV could have gotten a lot better a long time ago, but didn’t.
I’m supportive of the “moving on” crowd here and will eventually do so myself.
I want to buy the new ATV but I’ve refused it due to being obsolete at launch. Maybe it’ll be time to make the leap soon!
I admit, I get stuck in the mud sometimes and Steve’s comment about “finally cracking the TV” sticks like mud in my ears when I read reports like this. Who, what, where, how did this tech progress get lost? Not only did it not materialize, but Apple is generations behind competitors…as seen from comments here and reports like this one.
Scary isn’t it, I remember when Apple used to ditch out of date technology not glory in it at an absorbent price… best leave that to Harley Davidson and the like.
Who was responsible for this totally unacceptable lapse, indeed do they even see it as a lapse. More scary is that it hardly gives you confidence that they do/will see the light in other products as other events also hint at. Lets hope someone is noticing and heeding the warnings enough to actually get a grip on matters.
Let’s not construe better with being good enough.
They had to hire someone new to figure out the Apple TV needed 4K?
And the guy responsible for the mess got just promoted?
Yes, you want 4K, you need Roku now. Or you can wait, wait, wait and wait some more and HOPE it might happen with ATV. By then ,we will already be at 8K.
APPLE: BEHIND THE CURVE
Apple TV is lame. Poaching someone from Amazon to improve technology originally pioneered is pathetic. Tim Cook may be doing right by wall street, but not by long time Apple loyalists like me. I grudgingly bought the Amazon thingy.
Turning great quarterly numbers does not equal insanely great products. Remember, Blackberry churned out some amazing numbers before its demise.
Geeze, I still have the original TV. I’m waiting to see what the new iPad Pro 10″ might look like. If I wouldn’t need to buy new keyboards (Zagg/ClamCase) I’d invest in one of them instead of the TV. As Apple investor Ross Gerber said, the TV has really become nothing more than a Netflix portal. The whole 4K thing doesn’t really affect me at the moment. The big thing is content and Apple is way behind the curve, unfortunately, at this point. I think this will take a lot of work to get out of the hole and to really succeed. I think the Watch has a better chance of generating interest and customers than the TV. JMO, FWIW, etc.
Why all the complaints?
The TV app revealed/solved all!
Pipeline dreams coming true!!!!!
The TV app on Apple TV is about as groundbreaking as plugging in your new 4K TV to an aerial antenna. The difference is, with the latter you will be able to scroll through the broadcast channels quickly and intuitively.
Imo.. AppleTV’s biggest problem is its fragmented interface with each app being in its own UI universe ……. zero consolidation of favorits, no notifications for new content of interest..poor discovery.
Content at some point will be there up !
How one access the content is where the S hits the fan..
Plus that remote… arrggg ..
I say bring it on.
No.1 Priority for ATV should be to get their global indexing top notch and work with Channel App providers to create a hook to pull content data from all loaded Apps AND iTunes content. Get serious with Siri on it and 4K should be secondary to that for now. May take a complete overhaul to accomplish but Apple sure has the resources to pull it off assuming they actually commit them to the task.
“could” but won’t
I can afford to wait for 4K Apple TV still since I don’t have a 4K television and it will take a while for 4K content to arrive.
I like future-proofing but what is the hurry?
Maybe it would prevent removing ATV from consideration for those buying a new 4K set? The double whammy of no 4K support and higher cost is hard to ignore.
Don’t expect any real change. While Apple were up their own arses thinking about how to do TV other companies got off their arses and did it.
ATV4 is over priced and worthless as a TV device in the UK.
I have moved over to Amazon FireTV and moved my Netflix over too. If Apple think their Apple Music service with a few random TV progs is remotely attractive as a cultural destination they’ll have a mighty shock. Amazon Prime, Netflix and Plex is all I need plus all my FTA catchup services. The ATV4 is irrelevant now, Apple have missed the boat.
Hey Jonny, put the ATV down as another product you no longer need to do along with the Airports. Genius.
I’m still using a 4+ year old ATV3, but its getting glitchy. Got a Chromecast last night for $9.99 bundled with a Google Home. It’s so simple it’s almost non-intuitive. A tiny, cheap, hidden device with the HDMI plug built in that does most of what the ATV does.
Roku and Amazon and Chromecast are locking in the market. Apple, yet again, has missed the boat.