Amazon's Fire TV Looks A Lot Like the Rumored Apple TV Update

[samcraig]

I wouldn't call it "being beat to the punch," but Amazon, Google, and Roku have been able to deliver the features that people want right now earlier than Apple.

However, as we all know, Apple routinely aims to deliver the full package from the get go - even if it doesn't always happen.

It's widely known that people want the future of TV to be an ecosystem where you could stream content from online or your network, subscribe to individual cable channels, and use apps and games developed by third-parties. Currently, I believe that Apple is the only company that has the power to deliver that experience.

My guess, and my hope, is that they will wait until they have everything in place. The ATV has been a hobby for far too long, and they have been quietly building their offerings. Much like the iPhone, Apple has the potential to sweep away the competition because of their resources and their large user base.

I'll gladly wait longer for the product that delivers the experience of the future, rather than just another one of the present.

My issue with my Apply TVs is that for several updates in software, they (Apple) keeps missing a vital feature for something that should be a media hub. And that's the ability (without a companion device) be able to search or at least jump from letter to letter when looking at media.

I have close to 800 movies in iTunes - yet I have to scroll through them all to get to the one I want? That's just ridiculous. Are the iOS developers for Apple TV using their device for single one-off rentals or do they only test the software with a few titles? Because I can't imagine anyone in that department believing that not having a search/jump to letter function isn't a REQUIRED element.

But hey - that's just me and my .02.

 

[ucantgetridofme]

Apple is definitely just kicking back seeing their competitors release all these products, while I'm sure the competitors are just as scared for when Apple announces a keynote event and readys to impress everyone.

This Fire TV from Amazon can essentially be a software update from Apple.

Theres a reason why Apple has remained quiet in recent times concerning this space...

It's because they're preparing to strike.

Can't wait for the new Apple TV.

You're going to be dissapointed

 

[RabbitLuvr]

I'm looking to replace my gen2 Roku, which keeps freezing up and requires frequent resets (I'll move it to a lesser-used tv). I've been holding out for the new ATV, but this Amazon box has just become a strong contender.

 

[Tiger8]

Apple releases first TV model in 2007. Second generation comes out in 2010, third generation in 2012.

Amazon releases set-top box in 2014 and "Apple got beat to the punch."

As much as I love Apple, I disagree.

The first generation Apple TV was a Apple's answers to the complex Windows HTPC mania that was big in 2005 (Windows XP 2005 Media Center Edition). In addition to windows there were countless of Linux HTPC imlepemtations. So No, it's not a first by any mean.

Enter Roku in 2008... it Rocked the HTPC market altogether...

The second generation Apple TV was release in 2010, so again, No.

Now Amazon seems to have introduced a gamechanger that rocks Roku's world...

 

[Boston007]

I will never understand the appeal of Chromecast.

Very inexpensive and can stream movies. What could you possibly not understand the appeal?

 

[Mercury7]

just want to add to this conversation..... it would seem... people and apple in general underestimate the appeal of Amazon Prime..... Although you can use airplay to stream prime it is not ideal..... I am well in to the apple ecosystem but brought a roku recently for my daughters room just for Amazon.... Why you may ask.... it is mostly because we are cord cutters, Amazon offers tv show purchases for 1.99 versus 2.99 everywhere else.... it adds up quickly over the year.

so Ironically the only thing keeping me from having an appletv in every room is apple themselves keeping amazon off..... because for some reason they have decided not to offer regular def shows at a cheaper price

 

[sammaffei]

I bought one…

Well, hell, the ability to build out "old school" emulators (which Apple will never allow) to run coupled with NetFlix and Prime streaming was just too much to pass up.

 

[RobertMartens]

It did seem like Apple got beat to the punch, stole some of their thunder.

Stop toeing the line, I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop.

 

[Godzilla71]

The winning device will be agnostic, supporting all content:
DVD
Blueray
iTunesStore
AmazonPrime
NetFlix
etc.

AmazonTV misses out by not supporting all content paths. e.g., iTunesStore
AppleTV misses out by not supporting all content paths. e.g., AmazonPrime

Both need to be supporting disks at the very least with an optional plugin drive that they sit on to look like one nice neat device for those billions of existing DVD and Blueray disks.

My Vote: no buy yet.

One system to rule them all! buahahahahaha

 

[class77]

I'd like to know why Apple isn't pursuing some kind of unlimited streaming to compete with Amazon and Netflix. That seems to be a market just perfect for the Apple TV that hasn't been tapped yet.

 

[ChrisCW11]

Apple is definitely just kicking back seeing their competitors release all these products, while I'm sure the competitors are just as scared for when Apple announces a keynote event and readys to impress everyone.

This Fire TV from Amazon can essentially be a software update from Apple.

Theres a reason why Apple has remained quiet in recent times concerning this space...

It's because they're preparing to strike.

Can't wait for the new Apple TV.

Unless the new Apple TV is earth shattering I think Apple has dropped the ball on this product. All I see Apple doing now is, at most, matching the Fire and on top of that having a direct tie-in with CommieCast. It won't let you cut the cable, just marries you closer to rampant corporate monopolistic greed.

 

[RobertMartens]

just want to add to this conversation..... it would seem... people and apple in general underestimate the appeal of Amazon Prime..... Although you can use airplay to stream prime it is not ideal..... I am well in to the apple ecosystem but brought a roku recently for my daughters room just for Amazon.... Why you may ask.... it is mostly because we are cord cutters, Amazon offers tv show purchases for 1.99 versus 2.99 everywhere else.... it adds up quickly over the year.

so Ironically the only thing keeping me from having an appletv in every room is apple themselves keeping amazon off..... because for some reason they have decided not to offer regular def shows at a cheaper price

What is 'regular def'? It reminds me of 'regular gas' or 'driving a standard'

In the words of Steve Jobs, "It's over, high def won."

----------

Unless the new Apple TV is earth shattering I think Apple has dropped the ball on this product. All I see Apple doing now is, at most, matching the Fire and on top of that having a direct tie-in with CommieCast. It won't let you cut the cable, just marries you closer to rampant corporate monopolistic greed.

Yes, exactly as iTunes did for the record companies. They were about to disappear when Apple saved them with iTunes keeping centralised distribution alive for another decade.

Luckily it is almost over, as cd sales and iTunes sales are now both sliding.

 

[abshole765]

Very inexpensive and can stream movies. What could you possibly not understand the appeal?

My RPi does the same thing.

From what I've read/understand of the Chromecast, it requires either your phone, tablet or computer to 'control' it, correct?

Does it even play content that's on a external or NAS?

 

[milo]

Roku has always run apps. You can play games like Angry Birds on it, and it's controller is basically a Wii remote.

That's a simple game. Can it run high end games like a decent iOS or android device? And the selection seems pretty terrible, a box that can have games easily ported from iOS or android would likely have a much bigger game selection from day one.

 

[JAT]

Apple releases first TV model in 2007. Second generation comes out in 2010, third generation in 2012.

Amazon releases set-top box in 2014 and "Apple got beat to the punch."

You forgot to mention that Magnavox released the Odyssey in 1971, so this wasn't the first home video game system, either.

 

[scott911]

That's why you don't buy digital movies and lock yourself to one ecosystem.

agreed. I don't even like to buy digital music - unless I want just one track,

I'll get the album from amazon - about same price, sometime less if it's used. and it's at my home in 48 hours.
Then I rip it AT MUCH HIGHER QUALITY than itunes gives me.

 

[Iconoclysm]

bottom line its who ever brings it first! and AMAZON JUST DID IT!!!

Oh, is that the case with Retina display, touch id, capacitive screens, etc?

 

[ucantgetridofme]

Oh, is that the case with Retina display, touch id, capacitive screens, etc?

All things others did before Apple

----------

just want to add to this conversation..... it would seem... people and apple in general underestimate the appeal of Amazon Prime..... Although you can use airplay to stream prime it is not ideal..... I am well in to the apple ecosystem but brought a roku recently for my daughters room just for Amazon.... Why you may ask.... it is mostly because we are cord cutters, Amazon offers tv show purchases for 1.99 versus 2.99 everywhere else.... it adds up quickly over the year.

so Ironically the only thing keeping me from having an appletv in every room is apple themselves keeping amazon off..... because for some reason they have decided not to offer regular def shows at a cheaper price

You'd be better off with a cable subscription

 

[HenryDJP]

To sum it up in one sentence: I only pick on Apple because I know in my guts that with just a little bit less self-centeredness they could deliver products that are so much better then they already are.

Same can easily be said with Microsoft, Samsung (especially) and many others. My take is if you don't like what Apple is putting out just buy from one of these other competitors. Is that so hard to do? My personal motto is don't waste time complaining about one company, if there's something better out there then go buy it. Talking crap about Apple when a competitor releases something decent does nothing for this forum but create animosity. Sure, everyone has a right to an opinion but this very news article return quite a few unnecessary hate comments, especially when calling someone an iSheep. If you think insults towards others here are acceptable just because people show worship for a company and their product (especially when they are doing so on an enthusiast board that celebrates said company and their products) then I think that's pretty sad. So what? If somebody loves what they bought by Apple, enjoys boasting about it, feels very confident about the company they bought it from, they should have a right to feel comfortable to come here and shout it out without being insulted by others. Nobody here should be insulted by others or have to listen to constant flaming of a company. There's more flaming here against Apple then celebration and that makes for an unhealthy discussion.

My favorite one was multiple posts stating Siri is now #3 behind Google's and Microsoft's personal assistant. The funny thing is Microsoft's Cordanka (whatever the name is) hasn't even hit the streets for people to fully test for accuracy and performance, but yet on this forum it's already beating Siri. That's just unnecessary flaming. I would never pass judgement on something that hasn't even hit the streets for me to personally test.

 

[Cyborg21]

Software update? Doesn't the ATV have an A5 and 512MB of RAM? This thing is quad core and 2 GBs. The ATV is not fit for gaming in it's current state. It's gonna need a hardware and software overhaul.

Well... I think TV won't be created for gaming like PS4 or XBOX One. I feel like it's going to use iPhone / iPad hardware and play Airplay games. It's almost impossible to catch-up Sony and MS in terms of living room gaming even though it's Apple, it's already too late.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

Unless the new Apple TV is earth shattering I think Apple has dropped the ball on this product.

Apple sales were $1B+ last year... on a product it hardly markets. I don't think any honest assessment can suggest Apple has dropped the ball. Fire TV as of April 1 sold exactly $0 so it has a long way to go to catch up in that regard.

The reality is though, as I noted in a previous post, people will buy whatever box best suits there needs -- if any at all. It's still a niche category in its infancy. It's yet to be proven if these boxes are a "must have" gadget or just a tablet/PC accessory.

Amazon Prime video has been available on Roku for awhile and it can be streamed to an AppleTV via airplay, so there isn't a whole lot of new here other than Kindle Fire owners can play their apps on this box. So, the likely person for this box is a Kindle Fire owner. I don't think many AppleTV owners are going to abandon ship regardless of what new, or lack thereof, features ATV3 brings just as I suspect vested Android tablet owners are not going to buy an ATV3 even if it is the holy grail of boxes; surely Roku and others will follow ATV3. They'll wait.

 

[Cyborg21]

Apple is definitely just kicking back seeing their competitors release all these products, while I'm sure the competitors are just as scared for when Apple announces a keynote event and readys to impress everyone.

This Fire TV from Amazon can essentially be a software update from Apple.

Theres a reason why Apple has remained quiet in recent times concerning this space...

It's because they're preparing to strike.

Can't wait for the new Apple TV.

I agree! It's very fun to watch Apple Competitors trying to beat Apple products before they release. Same thing happened with iPad, and now, it's happening with iPad Pro, new Apple TV and iWatch. Even rumors are enough to make competitors scared.

 

[Rogifan]

Why Amazon's Unveiling of Fire TV Was Underwhelming

Wall Street analyst Michael Pachter of Wedbush Securities was not impressed with the launch. Pachter rates Amazon at "neutral" with a price target of $330. "We thought Fire TV's debut was underwhelming, and believe that Amazon missed an opportunity to introduce a highly-differentiated device," Pachter writes in a note.

"We believe that the primary use for Fire TV will be video streaming through Hulu Plus, Netflix, and Prime Instant Video, three applications that are already available on a slew of other consumer electronics devices, including Fire TV's primary competition. With similar application availability and pricing for Fire TV and its competition, we remain unconvinced that buyers will opt for Fire TV at the expense of Apple and Roku, particularly among non-Amazon customers," he writes. "Further, most gaming consoles already provide access to these streaming services, making Fire TV another entry in an already crowded space. Although Amazon has many notable partners lined up, we do not expect Fire TV's gaming initiative to be successful, as we do not anticipate that consumers will perceive a need to play mobile games on their TVs."

 

[samcraig]

So, the likely person for this box is a Kindle Fire owner. I don't think many AppleTV owners are going to abandon ship regardless of what new, or lack thereof, features ATV3 brings just as I suspect vested Android tablet owners are not going to buy an ATV3 even if it is the holy grail of boxes; surely Roku and others will follow ATV3. They'll wait.

The likely buyer is someone in the market for a streaming box and knows/trusts the Amazon brand. While Roku might offer more or less depending on one's opinion, it doesn't matter much if the person isn't educated on what products are on the market and available to them.

I don't think it's a question of leading/following. Now these devices are clearly being adopted and will continue to offer more and more in terms of features and content.

 

[darkslide29]

Apple releases first TV model in 2007. Second generation comes out in 2010, third generation in 2012.

Amazon releases set-top box in 2014 and "Apple got beat to the punch."

Lol, touchè, my friend. Good point and good post.
I think when I said what I did, I got sucked into the talk that Apple wanted to release a gaming controller for ATV (which they have released with iOS standards already) and incorporate Siri search into the remote also (which is still rumored). So I was just annoyed at Amazon for making exactly what rumors for the Apple TV is.

In retrospect, this is just another box that does about the same as all of the other players in the game, and at the same $99 price point. Nothing too special, unless you're ridiculously invested in the Amazon ecosystem. But even then, there are still alternatives.