“Apple’s latest attempt to crack digital TV arrived Monday in the form of a name change most consumers might not even notice,” Nick Statt writes for The Verge. “It’s simply called TV, and the new app replaced Apple’s Videos app with the release of iOS 10.2. It’s a neat addition for the iPhone and iPad, but it’s designed to shine on the Apple TV, where the app is supposed to hijack the interfaces and libraries of nearly every content provider available to offer a central location for all your TV needs. By opening TV, you can search for any show or movie, sync your many video accounts, and let Apple override the clumsy and disparate designs served up by other media companies.”
“But there’s a big problem. The TV app is neither what Apple really wants to deliver nor is it even a remotely suitable stopgap until the company can realize its vision for the future,” Statt writes. “Apple doesn’t have the support of Netflix or Amazon Video. The company’s single sign-on feature, which is designed to make it easier to use a cable subscription to sign into individual channel apps, only works with a handful of providers, excluding huge names like Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Verizon FiOS.”
“If Apple got its way, the TV app could be capable of upending the industry,” Statt writes. “Instead, it’s a reminder of how hamstrung technology companies are when trying to bridge the gap between our current app-centric world and a digital media future that’s deliberately kept out of reach by cable companies.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: It’s sad watching Apple flounder around so aimlessly and ineffectually. We launched the new TV app on one of our Apple TVs and, after half an hour of messing around (and we’re Day One original Apple TV and all other Apple TV model users), we had HGTV showing up. Just HGTV. Um, we can use the HGTV app for that.
Tim Cook’s utterly tone-deaf and hubristic statement when unveiling the TV app this fall — “And now, with the TV app, there’s really no reason to watch TV anywhere else” — remains as laughable as ever.
—
Apple should use their cash pile to create some much needed leverage to finally get their Apple TV subscription bundle(s) up and running even if all they do is flash their cash around. — MacDailyNews, January 14, 2016
Perhaps Cook should consider bidding for and winning NFL Sunday Ticket away from Direct TV, buying rights to Premiere League and La Liga games, etc. and making them Apple TV exclusives. Go directly to the sports leagues with boatlods of cash. Maybe that’ll grease the wheels. It’ll certainly move a bunch of Apple TV boxes around the world in short order. — MacDailyNews, May 6, 2014
Maybe [Apple’s large cash hoard is] insurance in the face of recalcitrant content providers (“last chance: sign the deal or we’ll buy you with petty cash”)? — MacDailyNews, February 21, 2013
—
One more time: Which Apple VP is in charge of Apple TV among other chronically glitch-prone services that are uniformly saddled with Microsoftian UIs?
Therein Apple’s problem lies.
A jovial, fun-loving nature wrapped in unbuttoned shirts is no substitute for execution, quality, taste, and signed contracts, Tim.
Beloved by all, yet failing the company. It’s a conundrum that needs to be solved. — MacDailyNews, November 3, 2016
It’s quite possible that without Steve Jobs’ help, Eddy Cue couldn’t get ink in a stationery store. — MacDailyNews, November 5, 2015
SEE ALSO:
Apple has no idea what they’re doing in the TV space, and it’s embarrassing – November 3, 2016
Apple’s new ‘TV’ app won’t include Netflix or Amazon Video – October 28, 2016
—
Hulu inks deals with Fox and Disney, adding ESPN, Fox News and more to forthcoming live service – November 1, 2016
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
