“A year ago, when Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, began to raise expectations that it was about to launch a new TV product, the company’s existing set-top box was par for the course in a market of humdrum streaming devices and clunky smart TVs,” Tim Bradshaw writes for Financial Times. “But now it looks in danger of being left behind by the more radical steps taken by its rivals.”
“As well as the Xbox One and Sony’s PlayStation 4, which both sold 1m units in their first day on sale this month, Google has released its $35 Chromecast, which allows smartphone-toting couch potatoes to transmit wirelessly whatever is on their small screen to the big one. It works with most devices that can run Google’s Chrome web browser,” Bradshaw writes. “Apple offers something similar with its Airplay feature, but it is limited to its own devices and its Apple TV receiver is three times as expensive.”
MacDailyNews Take: Apple TV costs less than a decent restaurant’s dinner for four. At certain price point, “three times as expensive” doesn’t matter – at least not to the type of customers that Apple wants. Google, as usual, can have the rest. They’re cheap. They buy less content or none at all. They’re not quality, valuable customers.
“This week, Apple paid about $360m to acquire PrimeSense, an Israeli company that provided some of the technology behind the previous Xbox’s motion-sensing device, Kinect. ‘Some sort of living-room appliance is in Apple’s future and gesture technology could be critical,’ wrote analysts at Jefferies in a note to clients this week, calling PrimeSense a ‘global pioneer and leader in gesture technologies,’ Bradshaw writes. “However, Jefferies analysts also described Apple TV as ‘the Unicorn,’ as it had been rumoured for so long without ever being seen… Perhaps PrimeSense and other deals can help Apple raise its game in the living room but for now, many watchers of the company still doubt its TV unicorn exists.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
