“Analysts and consumers alike consider 2013 to be a middling year for Apple, at best,” Mike Schuster writes for Minyanville.
“iOS 7 and iPad Pros [sic] were both celebrated additions to its roster, and the newly designed Mac Pro harkens back to when Cupertino could still wow us just with a sleek design,” Schuster writes. “But whereas the iPhone 5S and 5C garnered ho-hum reactions from those looking for revolutionary updates to the company’s smartphone line, anyone hoping 2013 would be the year that Apple finally saved TV was woefully disappointed. In fact, analyst John Siracusa slapped the company’s current TV offerings with an F grade. ‘[It’s] a hard problem and a tough market,’ Siracusa writes. ‘But it’s time for action.'”
“As it stands, the Apple TV set-top box is the company’s only official, yet lacking, solution in a burgeoning home-entertainment market,” Schuster writes. “Still considered a “hobby” to Apple since the first-generation model debuted seven years ago, the set-top box falls short of delivering the ‘wow factor’ inherent in the company’s other product lines. And with the mythical Apple HDTV set still bearing the mark of vaporware, Cupertino continues to fall behind its competitors as their sets, boxes, and dongles gain traction in a growing market.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple has fallen so far behind “rivals” with Apple TV that they only have the number one selling third-party set-top box.
As for the rest of Schuster’s mistake-ridded pap, anyone who considers the world’s first 64-bit smartphone, Touch ID, the world’s first 64-bit tablets, iOS 7, OS X Mavericks, iBeacon, iWork for iOS/OS X/iCloud, iTunes Radio, MacBook Air notebooks with all-day battery life, and more to be “middling” or “ho-hum” must be a mouth-breathing fragmandroid settler.
Related article:
Apple TV dominates digital media receiver market with 71% share – May 29, 2013
Oh no! Another failure by Apple to dominate a market sector, like the way they failed to capture the netbook market, the low-price PC market, the giant laptop market. Doom and despair!
I LOVE the fact that he calls a product made up by idiots like him “mythical” and “vaporware”. YEAH, IT’S MYTHICAL – YOU INVENTED IT, DUMBASS! The whole rest of the article is equally redonkulous. Nice click bait, Schuster.
Well, Apple did address both the netbook and low-priced (sub-$500) PC market in 2010, after years of harping by the “analysts.” It’s called iPad. So you see, Apple does listen to analysts… 😉
When will the anal ists wake up to know Apple is always the late comer to kick other competitors ass and completely become the market leader ?
Look at nokia ! Big market share , now what ?
Look at netbook ! Apple killed it with 0 market share !
All done by Apple being late !!
I plan to buy a Sony 55″ 4K TV this spring because Apple has closed the window on our purchase timeframe.
Not to worry. Regardless what all the experts spew, there will be no Apple Television. They aren’t building cars but they are being integrated in cars. I realize building a car and a tv are dang near as far apart as one can get but as they say, why buy the cow when you get the milk for free. Buying a cutting edge monitor doesn’t make the computer any faster but it does improve the experience. Key word heard ad nauseam, “experience”.
Like Dennis Milker, I could be wrong.
re: MDN Take: Yes, Apple has fallen behind on TV, and that is why they only have the #1 set top box instead of having a monopoly on set top boxes.
If Apple TV were an open platform, Roku wouldn’t even exist today. That is the difference here.
Please define what you mean by “open platform”.
Microsoft could hook up it’s gaming crap to Apple TV if it was open to all digital providers.
The longer Apple didn’t release a product for shamesuck to copy , the more likely Apple competitors earn much less !!!
Your posts have been better lately, Raymond. keep up the good work. 🙂
I am a true Apple fanboy.
I was negative before coz i know the ugly side of the market.
MDN’s comment is spot on. I could not believe the pace of innovation in 2013. The 64 bit, fingerprint sensing iPhone was only the most obvious. If this was a ho hum year for Apple, what does it say about the rest of the industry?
Last time I checked, Apple sold COMPUTERS. Not friggin TVs.
The same could be said about phones, software, keyboards, ect….
As true as your statement is, don’t you think what we expect from a TV has changed? Apple is one of the best placed companies to dominate the market with a superior OS, ITunes, App Store and top class engineering.
Come on! Wishing to be in anything and everywhere isn’t such a good idea!
Why should Apple do what others do?
Apple needs to do what makes TV great… not the TV itself. There is far enough going on about it out there.
Right you are!!!
Content is KING….NOT THE TV…!
Great content is a necessary (but as yet unsatisfied) condition for aTV to take off.
But it is the user interface that still needs work.
– The aTV should have much better search options, e.g., by genre at the top level, not by content provider
– The aTV should take control of the media center configuration (e.g., by using CEC over HDMI) and tell the TV where to get its input from, thereby obviating the need to depend on umpteen remotes
– Maybe the aTV remote lacks a few functions (not necessarily extra buttons, maybe a touch screen with tactile feedback), so one could at least control the volume. On-screen menus should take care of the rest.
Surely Apple will come up with much sleeker and less obtrusive UI than the crap most “smart” TVs and cable boxes come with today.
Look at the CNN/Fortune magazine article yesterday with the 9 barchart breakout of Apple vs Google vs Amazon…
STAGGERING….
The thing is, even if you accept that Apple is failing in some fashion, or that they’re not innovating like they’re used to, or whatever other crap you want to level against them, you have to still look at it in comparison to every other company. Apple out do other companies on basically any relevant measure. If Apple aren’t innovating, then the others must be somehow regressing.
The FUDsmanship is reaching heady levels again. Since we have no choice but to live with them, these c-whores should have, at the very least, the decency to be a little original in their “analysis” instead of churning the same lame-brained morass ad nauseum!
Nothing can be considered vapor ware unless the company accused of producing it claims (or claimed) that the product that doesn’t exist, would, at some point in time, exist. Apple has never claimed to be working on a TV. It’s something made up by a bunch of idiots who make a living by writing nonsense and interspersing Apple’s name between a slew of inanities.
I feel very sad about how this market runs .
Those company who earns less can enjoy longer growth . Why ? What Apple earns = 4 times more than google )
Then google GROWS 4 years = Apple one year .
The market loves growth but is stupid to differentiate what growth is good .
Mike Schuster reminds me of an ancient Israelite. Mike wants a messiah, when his chosen messiah doesn’t start a revolution, but instead an evolution, he rejects his chosen messiah. I wonder if he is going to call for Tim Cooks crucifixion next. Oops already being done everyday here and elsewhere. Humans are so predictable.
Wow, he started off by saying Apple released a iPad Pro this year. It’s called proof reading. Also the Air was a huge advancement in tablets. What BS about iPhone and Mac Pro. Vaporware is something a company said they are going to release than does not. Apple has never said it would sell a TV. What other set top box is also a professional device? Not only can you stream iOS devices, but also Macs. A pocketable device you can quickly set up for presentations. Who else has that? I think the next thing for Apple TV will be quick and easy 4K, and they need not rush. Currently it takes Sony 24 hrs. to download a movie to their 4K box. They could make it 64 bit and improve AirPlay lag, that would help a lot with games. As a hobby ATV has been a test ground for a lot of things. Limited use OSX (iOS), ditching HHD for SSD, AirPlay to name a few. ATV is a good way to see what Apple is testing.
This is getting ridiculous. Apple’s strategy to influence how TV content is delivered is already on the shelves. Anyone who thinks Apple will or must produce and actual television is clearly too stupid to be writing about technology.
Yes, just ask Samsung how that tv market is working out.
Apple is doomed! Doomed, I tell you! They’ve made absolutely no progress on their 8 passenger, flying iPad, supercomputer 16-core refrigerator! Dooooomed!
Don’t be silly. Samsung has a long lead in the smart refrigerator space. Bigger is better there, and Apple is still working out their miniaturisation fetish. Besides, the automotive wars are heating up, and troops must be rushed to man the bulwarks there. As for flight, there are serious regulatory hurdles that have stopped everyone, not just Apple, from delivering the flying cars and jet packs that consumers have been demanding since 1950.
No, Apple would be best served by ignoring the cries of the rabble, the pontification of the pundits, and the hysteria of the stock market, and doggedly go about their mundane business of turning lead into gold.
I agree with the author’s anslysis
My friends with both ATV and Roku prefer the latter
Notice the analyst didn’t even consider that Apple is most likely currently working on some great products that will knock our socks off and be years ahead of the competition… thus making this ranting lets-try-to-create-some-noise-to-lower-the-current-stock-price-so-I-can—buy-low article — an article which will be irrelevant in due time. Analysts are a bunch of babies sitting around with their mouths open waiting for food, and then will still complain about the kind of food they get.
Smart TV? Who needs it? This whole discussion reminds me of the debate around smart networks almost 30 years ago. And what won? IP networks because the network itself is dumb and the intelligence is in the software/application layer.
The same will eventually be true of TVs. They should be dumb display devices controlled and managed by smart apps/devices such as AppleTV or Roku. Each TV mfg having its own OS and apps is a dead end.
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
As Apple’s rivals keep playing their hands and come up short, Apple is fine tuning and working on something that none of them will ever get until after Apple makes it obvious.
What am I missing with AppleTV that others have? I heard about pointless TV stations. (Prob from lame app(s) easily found on Internet/app store that I can AirPlay if I cared.
I’m sure I could AirPlay Google Play / Amazon stuff from my Mac (haven’t tried)
I have it all, if and when I want it.
I think if I had cable I could view that too. AirPlay / Time Warner App
By the way, I have no prob buying kids movies through iTunes (I don’t watch movies more than once or twice…but kids do) $10-20 per iTunes movie seldom phases me (bout 4 or 5 movies thus far…just getting started)
Someday, it will be the next big thing. But it’s huge now for me and a few million people.