Apple Engineers Reportedly Pessimistic About Apple's Living Room Hardware Strategy

[PinkyMacGodess]

Yeah, Television as a “do-all” device likely will never work as folks have found that the living room is not the most comfortable place for all they want to do. I would imagine there’s some folks that remember their WebTV fondly and would like an updated “that”, but it’s just nostalgia.

The only people I know, family, that had one were an aunt and uncle. They 'loved' it, but were the least involved family members with social media and email. I think a large part of that was the clunky interface. Maybe a 'WebTV' like device would work better with today's much higher resolution tvs, but I still think it's such a niche product it wouldn't sell well at all. I have an Apple 'short' keyboard sitting in front of the tv in the 'great' room, and have never actually used it. I thought it would be 'useful', but it's just drawing dust. If they supported Safari on the ATV, would I use it more, or at all? Doubtful. I use an iPad or my MBP on my lap if I need it, something like the Weather Channel, or CNN on in the background.

A webTV like device would likely only appeal to the people already in the 'digital dessert', or really don't use it at all very much. It would seem to be more usable, but its not. If it was, it would probably still exist.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

The engineers saw success as “SELLING MORE THAN THE COMPETITION!”
Apple, the company saw success as “selling devices for a profit.”

Amazon Alexa is a “colossal failure,” on pace to lose $10 billion this year

Layoffs reportedly hit the Alexa team hard as the company’s biggest money loser.

arstechnica.com

 

[haplain]

I'm a huge Apple/tech person, but I honestly don't see the need for some of this stuff. I do think the Apple TV has a lot more runway than we're getting but think a lot of the other products i.e. Home Pod have little to no real use.

 

[tomtad]

I'm a huge Apple/tech person, but I honestly don't see the need for some of this stuff. I do think the Apple TV has a lot more runway than we're getting but think a lot of the other products i.e. Home Pod have little to no real use.

What are you on about, no use for a HomePod!?

It was, and still is, a music speaker first and voice assistant second. And as far as I’m aware ever since their invention people have been buying speakers and listening to music.

 

[sublunar]

What are you on about, no use for a HomePod!?

It was, and still is, a music speaker first and voice assistant second. And as far as I’m aware ever since their invention people have been buying speakers and listening to music.

Thanks to this thread being resurrected with that Alexa article, I'm now starting to see the point where the HomePod returns as a sound bar that goes under a TV. Clearly Siri is way behind the curve on this but it could still be added as a 'feature'.

Add in AppleTV functionality with A15 CPU and decent sound quality, and the killer bit could be an ultra wide camera with centre stage which could then turn a connected TV into a giant FaceTime machine.

So you then have a situation where people might not buy an overpriced smart speaker but would buy a decent sound bar and an upgrade to their TV's built in OS. What if Apple put an M2 CPU on such a product?

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Clearly Siri is way behind the curve on this but it could still be added as a 'feature'.

I wouldn’t even say they’re too behind the curve. It’s just that the curve is not where all the YouTuber’s thought it was.
From the article:
“Alexa was getting a billion interactions a week, but most of those conversations were trivial commands to play music or ask about the weather.”

A BILLION interactions a WEEK. And, most of those were trivial commands. I can build a “test suite” of commands that really stress the feature sets and show where Siri falls short easy. But, according to Amazon, that would not be remotely close to evaluating how they compare in the real world. According to them, if Siri can play music and give weather results, it’s what most people are using it for anyway!

 

[haplain]

What are you on about, no use for a HomePod!?

It was, and still is, a music speaker first and voice assistant second. And as far as I’m aware ever since their invention people have been buying speakers and listening to music.

It's just a personal opinion and I don't have much use for it. Perhaps in an updated form it could have more appeal... but it in it's current/former state it did so well Apple stopped selling it (HomePod not HomePod mini). I think that pretty much sums it up.

 

[SenorWhyMe]

apple just give us safari already i would love to connect mouse and keyboard on my tv and search safari and other apps. apple tv is really powerful for what it only does

 

[compwiz1202]

"Despite the obvious benefits of an ‌Apple TV‌ for users invested in Apple's ecosystem"

This is exactly the problem with apple's strategy in general. Google products for example work well everywhere over the web. But in order to get a nice experience from apple you have to put your hand deep in the pocket. Have you ever tried apple music on android ? It's a total mess. The same goes for all apple services. Heck, even apple tv+ on the mac is buggy.

Yea how many Google things will work on an iPhone but not the other way. I know Maps is one. Can you use GPay on an iPhone?

 

[compwiz1202]

I wouldn’t even say they’re too behind the curve. It’s just that the curve is not where all the YouTuber’s thought it was.
From the article:
“Alexa was getting a billion interactions a week, but most of those conversations were trivial commands to play music or ask about the weather.”

A BILLION interactions a WEEK. And, most of those were trivial commands. I can build a “test suite” of commands that really stress the feature sets and show where Siri falls short easy. But, according to Amazon, that would not be remotely close to evaluating how they compare in the real world. According to them, if Siri can play music and give weather results, it’s what most people are using it for anyway!

For the simple things yea, but we got a FireTV (The actual TV Set), and don't even use ATV anymore because Alexa destroys Siri at voice control.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

What are you on about, no use for a HomePod!?

It was, and still is, a music speaker first and voice assistant second. And as far as I’m aware ever since their invention people have been buying speakers and listening to music.

It's a very poor speaker though.

For one, there's no standardized input. So good luck getting anything to actually play to it. Then once you do, it's not loud at all. And the volume controls on it are so horrible that it's actually easier to use Siri than try to fumble with the touch screen on the top (Seriously, how do you orient the button on the top of a sphere!).

 

[Unregistered 4U]

For the simple things yea, but we got a FireTV (The actual TV Set), and don't even use ATV anymore because Alexa destroys Siri at voice control.

Oh, I’m certain it completely does. And, for that small portion of the populace that’s NOT just asking to play music and tell the weather, there’s no contest. Luckily for Apple, most folks wouldn’t know the difference as they’re only asking to play music and tell the weather.