TV simply needs dedicated focus… with those in charge of it being granted broad decision-making authority to make the most of it. If a relatively tiny company like Roku and even Netflix can make a broad array of content deals with limited "war chests," just think what a behemoth like Apple could accomplish if they had a Roku or Netflix-like team singularly focused on "out-Rokuing" those smaller fish.
I suspect the problem is that Apple is still run like a small company with a small handful of guys at the very top demanding to be in on all decisions- big & nitty gritty- such that they are bottlenecks to maximizing progress. Sure Apple is immensely successful and they seem to be a bunch of very smart guys. But where bottlenecks show is in situations like this. What this looks like is: "we make more money on this other stuff and can't give this "hobby" much attention now. Maybe 2015." What it should look like is: "we're fully occupied with iPhones, etc but we need the business to grow beyond what we can personally contribute. So let's DELEGATE decision-making authority to a dedicated team and charge them with 'out-Rokuing' Roku and making our little 'hobby' into a 4th leg of the table." If they fail, no big deal- it was only a 'hobby.' If they succeed, we all get bigger bonuses and we can take most of the 'brilliance' credit at the special event rollout anyway."
I'm sure the perpetual Apple-can-do-no-wrong cheerleaders will scream sacrilege at the above, but look at it very simply: how can a Roku with extraordinarily limited financial and corporate resources relative to Apple accomplish so much having arrived on the scene AFTER Apple? How? They are focused on their little boxes, with a team hungry to make the most of it. They have a team that can make decisions and do deals and are probably charged with getting such deals done ASAP. What we keep hearing from Apple is rumors of teams being pulled off of their focal points to help finish up something in a new version of iOS or OS X… as if Apple barely has enough resources on hand to keep the existing plates spinning. And yet, we're all so quick to rah-rah the ever-growing war chest which could be used to staff focal point areas if Apple was actually understaffed.
Launch delays because of "circling the wagons" to get the favored product out the door is a classic sign of bottleneck management (focused on the favorite thing at the expense of the less favored things). What should happen there is that the less favored things should get their own leadership with decision-making authority to maximize those things. Where could Apple use this? IMO, all Apple things other than iDevices: the "hobby", Macs, all of the unique Apple software products, even OS X, etc
I've said it for years now: this little box could be a very HOT product for Apple. I've got several of them myself. All it needs is Roku-like attention, focus and decision-making (sans bottlenecks). If Apple doesn't want to advance it internally, build the app store for it and let third parties realize it's potential. Instead, it's excuse after excuse, year after year: "we keep pushing the string", "hobby", etc. It's a shame really as it seems it would be easy for Apple to fully take this market if they would just get after it. Instead, they are allowing little guys to bite into it more and more.
