“Apple and Amazon are not really true, all-out competitors like Google is with both of them. Apple does not have a general retail operation and Amazon does not make computers or, anymore, phones. But tablets are no longer their only competitive category,” Max Greve writes for Seeking Alpha. “And Amazon, in addition to posing an increasing challenge to iPad, seems to be winning another battle against the largest tech company.”
“Apple recently issued its latest earnings results for the holiday quarter, and overall they were rather to the upside. Apple set new records for sales of iPhones, Macintosh, Services and Apple Watch. Apple stock rose on the announcement,” Greve writes. “A little more surprising was the shortfall in the Other Products category, which fell 8% Y/Y despite including the record-breaking Apple Watch product. The other products in this bundle are Beats headphones, iPods and Apple TVs. With iPods too small to affect the final number much at this point, it was pretty obvious from the moment it was announced that either Beats or Apple TV had hit a real bump in the road.”
“Apple’s CFO later made it official: Apple TV sales had indeed declined, she [sic] said, an unusual setback for an Apple product only one year old,” Greve writes. “If Amazon can persuade 20 million Prime members to subscribe to HBO through them, that’s $1.8 billion per year in distribution fees. And that’s just one channel in a $500 billion market… the Apple TV category is almost as important to the company’s future as iPhone is, in my opinion. Apple’s lumping it in with “Other Products” and its current low revenue base doesn’t change that. The state of Apple’s TV sales means the company may be falling behind in a critical area.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Gee, ya think?
It’s 2017 and Apple TV doesn’t even have 4K capability (which it should have had at launch in 2015). Its remote looks to have been designed by someone with no talent whatsoever for industrial design or usability (Steve Jobs would be appalled; Jony Ive should be embarrassed), Apple’s vaunted TV app doesn’t work with the many popular services, including Amazon Prime (The Grand Tour, etc.), and “single sign on” doesn’t even work with some very major cable providers. It’s a joke. And a bad one, at that.
It’s no wonder the overpriced, underspec’d, poorly-designed Apple TV isn’t selling.
I have a latest generation Apple TV and an Amazon Fire. My go-to device is the Fire. Partly because of the awful Apple remote and partly because the best stuff to watch is Amazon original content or Netflix, so default to Amazon for one-stop “shopping.” iTunes content is pay-per-view, so it’s last on my list when I want something new to watch.
Missing 4K, not big deal today given how little content there is. Actually, 95 of fire devices in the wild are not 4K. However, with Amazon prime you get a lot of “free content” and with Apple TV you do not. Seems rather simple to have Apple TV Streaming service for another $70 / year that provides similar. Then if they dropped some big money to get NFL Sunday Ticket rights exclusively, that would change the game.
My iPhone takes 4k video and high res photos, both of which the current Apple TV displays with greatly reduced quality.
Agree. The 4K thing is a distraction. It’s the incomplete content and the poor UI that’s hampering AppleTV sales.
The whole UI needs a fundamental rethink. Get rid of the stupid button-like icons. It’s not a touch device so don’t pretend otherwise. I’m disheartened that the UI wasn’t completely revamped when the newest version of AppleTV came out a year ago. I remember in the months prior to the new AppleTV being released people whispering that Apple’s UI team had a fantastic new UI that was going to blow us all away. Boy was that a let down.
Apple….suckin’ hind tit again.
Belligerent Asswipe.
So with Apple being such a catastrophe, put your money where your mouth is. Go buy yourself a Windblows computer and a Samsung phone… and fuck off with the incessant whining.
(((((((Cocoa Boy!)))))))
Botty, stick to the tech subject.
If you wanna be a star, go on to Twitter/FB all the rest and leave MDN for what it is intended.
uh, I was talking “tech subject,” Mr. Stupid…. are you saying Apple hasn’t become a “follower” instead of the innovator in the $500b video streaming market?
I reckon someone who spends time incessantly complaining on a news site about a company they think is crap REALLY has some kind of severe mental problem. AND is a profoundly pathetic person. It really is that simple.
well, I have seen Apple’s ups and downs for the last forty or so years…and I am telling you that Tim Cook is a worse CEO than John Sculley. The “halo” effect of Jobs’s vision that’s been protecting Pipeline Timmy is about to fade-out.
…and THAT’S what is “pathetic.” It really is that simple, punk.
PS: When Jobs was at the helm, I was Apple’s biggest cheerleader on this site.
I find that hard to believe, given Steve’s numerous mistakes.
Or maybe you forgave him those, because he wasn’t gay.
Or maybe the hate-filled Alzheimer’s hadn’t progressed as far.
the gay card is as impotent as the race card, cowgirl.
Well, let me play the “why don’t you fuck off?” card, then.
Seriously… Windows, Linux, Samsung, etc. You have other options. You are mostly about small-minded vitriol… insulting Tim Cook and numerous others out there, and anyone here who has the slightest disagreement with you.
You are incapable of rational discussion.
And, as Sean points out, you think Apple is “a catastrophe”. So fuck off, already. Go buy other better products and spare us your incessant infantile whining.
okay, I’ll play: “fück off, jackass.”
Seriously, Belligerent Asswipe, address the point:
With Apply being such a catastrophe, put your money where your mouth is. Go buy yourself a Windblows computer and a Samsung phone… and fuck off with the incessant whining.
drink your cocoa…get in your Spiderman jammies and take your nap, puke.
Interesting how you can never actually address a clear point – from anyone.
You just have to resort to swearing and name-calling… because you’ve got nothing.
Seriously, let’s see you try to answer the point.
I do believe “belligerent asswipe” falls under the category of “swearing and name-calling” you little puke.
I reserve my name-calling just for you, because you are such a nasty little fuck.
YOU use insult and name calling with EVERYONE who does or says anything you dislike or disagree with.
So back to the point… With Apply being such a catastrophe, put your money where your mouth is. Go buy yourself a Windblows computer and a Samsung phone… and fuck off with the incessant whining. What possible sane excuse do you have for staying here?
I almost feel sad for you that your pathetic existence brings you back, time and time again, to this site where you are about as hated as that Cheeto pretending to run the country. Oh, I’m sure you’ll have some sort of less-than-witty retort. In fact, I somewhat look forward to it. Wussamatter, snowflake? Momma cut you off the teet once you turned 10?
Your massa’ calls…
“‘It has to be ingrained in the schools, it has to be ingrained in the public,’ said Mr Cook.
Pipeline Timmy learned a lot in communist China.
Please Tim Cork, save us from trump! 😤😭😭
Your a fool
Sorry consensus, but I love the Apple remote. It’s the others that I hate. My ten-year-old nephew learned to use it all alone when he was eight. I charge it once every couple of months(Compared to my Nvidia Shield remote that may last 24 hrs!
I use Apple Tv and the Nvidia Shield. 4k streaming is not an option for me(In the Laurentians where I live, service tops out at 10MBPS). The only thing I don’t like about Apple Tv is its restrictions-no Kodi.
I loved the old Apple TV. I got excited when the new one was announced and got one right away. I waited. And waited…….and…..waited…for these “amazing” updates and “incredible content” that was on the way. So far I’ve seen nothing short of a snoozer. If Apple releases an updated Apple TV again without ever delivering on this last one, I’m sorry, I’ll sit it out. It’s been a real bummer. I do have the Fire TV as well and find that I’m using it more and more lately.
Still waiting for ATV to show Steve’s idea of ‘cracking’ TV.
Yes. That was the big let down.
First of all, this is not a huge problem for Apple. AppleTV revenues are insignificant to Apple’s bottom line – even if the product were wildly successful it still would not make much of a difference. HBO saw it’s highest ever increase in subscription growth from the AppleTV, not the Amazon Fire or any other device. NONE of these devices are going to have any impact on the market until the cable channels can break themselves free of the cable operators (in the U.S. – don’t know how that works in other countries).
Amazon offering their own content is NOTHING special. If they and NetFlix can do it, then it goes to show that anyone can. I’m mean seriously, have you not seen how many cable channels there are these days – all with original content!?! Apple not doing it is a decision not a disability.
1. I don’t have an Amazon Prime membership
2. I don’t care about 4K – my TV is 1080p and will remain so unti I buy a new TV in about 5 years
3. I have a huge ITunes library that I’ve built over the years.
4. My only streaming subscription is NetFlix (not even a cable subscription)
5. I have a life – too many friends and hobbies to waste my time in front of a TV.
Perhaps, but TV is one more area Amazon has Alexa front and center with their own devices to gain mindshare.
Apple TV is garbage
Build an Apple TV “Stick”, allow full Amazon Prime and Netflix functionality like everyone else…. and write this article one year later.
Why is it everyone seems to thing that the lack of Amazon Prime on Apple TV is Apple’s fault? Amazon is choosing to not release the product not Apple. What rumors are saying is this is because Amazon does not want to pay for Apple’s cut for rentals and purchases. But I wonder how many Fire TVs Amazon would sell if they had an Apple TV app?
As to the remote? I think it is great. There is only one “flaw” that annoys me. You can’t, with a quick glance, tell which end is up. But a sticker on the “handle” end took care of that.
I would say not too much more based on the sentiments of those commenting on MDN. There seems to be quite a significant number of Apple owners that are giving up on ‘waiting’ for ATV and have already purchased a Fire Stick. The Apple TV App on Fire Stick now would just be icing.
PEOPLE – stop responding to botvinnik✓ᵀᴿᵁᴹᴾ
image of this guy just posted
How the heck did you get a photo of Potty!!!?