All some people wanted was a more updated Apple TV 3, not a whole new (and more expensive) device, that is missing features and had last ten architecture. I wish they'd update software for the Apple TV 3, ridiculous that it can't access Apple Music given they're still selling them.
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Apple TV Sees Major Sales Growth in 2015 But Still Ranks as Fourth Most Popular Streaming Media Player
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You are missing the point completely. 9/10 people have not heard of Apple TV, . We are not discussing brand recognition or brand awareness, we are talking streaming boxes . Given we are talking a niche markert That is steaming boxes, the average consumer has no idea what an appLe tv is. Most will ask, why would u need that box, I have a TV that has apps.....
So let's ignore brand regongition and think about the consumer that buys an streaming box, they are not average, and this is a niche product, or as apple calls it hobby product.
The basic point of a steaming box is too "play video" so this is unit for anyone that has moved from physical media to network media.....is that an average user for you....no! These people know how to setup a "HOME entertainerment" network. Many users here would run Mac minis as HTPCs.
Remember when apple did computers.....average consumer could careless what apple products apple had, though anyone of knowledge of computers knew apple products, same goes for streaming boxes, you need to know something about this niche product line first, and when you do ......the nvidia shield is got s very good rep.
Take gamers now, the average consumer has not heard of call of duty, or could not tell you all the consoles ..... But geez they know what nvidia is.
So let have a look at people who would buy a streaming box....an actual product...to watch videos and game on.....lets talk brand awareness among these.....Roku, chromecast, Apple TV, nvidia shield, western digital tv...Amazon tv
How if you don't understand what a HTPC is in the home entertainmemt setup, and how new streaming boxes are now replacing them, that's your lack of knowledge , but it's here where products like shield compete against the ATV, and ATV is lacking .....
Let me rephrase it another way....have you heard of VHS, DVD....in 2016...the current version of these devices "stream" video... For these consumers that play their "assets" they have not heard of an apple product that does the job for them. A PS4 or Roku etc will allow them to plug in thier drive and bang, they play video, apple will not let you do that.
So how about we look at the products needs in question and ignore, "have you heard of company X"
Same here, Apple as usually screwed things up somewhere along the line with ATV. But with my fiber cable provider offering a more or less compatible range of features the ATV has been mainly gathering dust here.
I'm surprised AppleTV apps haven't taken off, especially games ( though, the default Controller is horrible for games ) and doesn't help that Apple push up prices for 3rd party controllers due to their control freak requirements.
When AppleTV 4 first came out, it was an unfinished product - no BT support for external keyboard, no IOS remote support, half arsed AppStore.
ATV4 maturing nicely now, but more expensive than competition.
4K content will appear when Apple start supporting 4K content. Playing a few 4K movies will blow a lot of people's monthly bandwidth limit!
When AppleTV 4 first came out, it was an unfinished product - no BT support for external keyboard, no IOS remote support, half arsed AppStore.
ATV4 maturing nicely now, but more expensive than competition.
4K content will appear when Apple start supporting 4K content. Playing a few 4K movies will blow a lot of people's monthly bandwidth limit!
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It's an App Store for anyone who wants to create an App and pay 30% commission , hence why "X" chooses not to .
Amazon is not exactly at fault here , maybe they choose not to give apple 30% just to put thier app on there, and are doing just fine with thier own players.
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The apps are poor , it seems the App Store lost momentum . Had apple launched say 6 months later with a polished product, maybe the momentum would still there, but it was a really bad start, and from using the ATV daily, there are no quality apps coming through, it's like a poor mans App Store
http://bgr.com/2013/09/26/netflix-4k-streaming/
http://4k.com/news/research-shows-just-21-of-us-homes-have-4k-capable-internet-access-9744/
http://blog.streamingmedia.com/2015/01/4k-streaming-bandwidth-problem.html
In the US? Have fun streaming 4K, it basically won't be happening for most people.
What MAJOR work do you mean? The UI is extremely polished and far more capable than the d pad remote that came with previous ATV generations, which btw appeared later on Amazon and Roku devices.
The UI is not radically different but the brilliance of ATV4 is the connected experience that the other devices lack... It's like operating an iPhone on a 60" screen that's 8 feet away from you... A very impressive feat.
While Apple took their sweet time with ATV4, it was well worth the wait IMO... They brought a unique yet familiar iOS UX to the TV, setting up a strong foundation for TVOS and apps.
now, add in Australia and Europe to that 'pie' chart, and it will look betterless Roku, more Apple TV.
Add just China or India and ATV is invisible on the chart
No 4K, no Amazon plus lots of little annoyances (like how many clicks to play something you own on itunes? No auto play next episode?).
Plus the iTunes infrastructure does not do streaming very well compared to both Amazon and Netflix.
Also costs too much.
Plus the iTunes infrastructure does not do streaming very well compared to both Amazon and Netflix.
Also costs too much.
If you're not using Siri, you're doing it wrong. Using Siri is much faster than clicking around.
It depends on compression.
Uncompressed 4K requires 48Gbit/s which doesn't even work on a wired network.
In the real world nobody does uncompressed 4K. Netflix only uses 0.016Gbit/s, which is a breeze for good wifi routers, some of them are 1.3Gbit/s.
UHD BlueRay is between 108Mbps and 128Mbps, which will look a *lot* better than Netflix and still easily within the capacity of a good wifi network.
Apple TV has ethernet if you don't trust wifi... but it's about 13x slower than the built in wifi, so maybe get a better modem if wifi isn't working for you.
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Regardless of the 4K gimmick, ATV can't output 23.976 fps so it's useless for movies.
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As a data point, I have 4 friends/family members that own streaming gear. Those are spread over 5 locations and include 1 Roku, 4 ATV3s, 1 ATV4 and 1 Chromecast. All basically watch Netflix movies. None have interest in non-movie apps or games.
I have 3 of those (ATV3, ATV4 and Chromecast). I don't use the Apple TV remote at all, and instead rely on a Harmony setup that is common to 2 primary TV setups. We don't have cable or Sat, and instead rely on local broadcast TV (using a digital antenna) and Tivo units for DVR support. On streaming, its mostly Netflix, Hulu and Amazon.
The Chromecast was purchased for a 3rd basic TV setup in front of a treadmill and is only used for Netflix. That decision was based strictly on $.
Current ATV gear is pricey compared to competitors. That coupled with continued yearly rumors of some Apple TV service that never materialized likely didn't help with sales.
Within those same folks, there are at least 8 iPhones. For the most part, Siri is little used as its just not reliable. Here we moved to Amazon Echo, which runs circles around Siri in both features and reliability.
Apple innovation seems somewhat stalled, with their focus on the one product, iPhone, that generates something like 70% of their revenue. Even there their restrictive policies considerable limit what developers might otherwise be able to do.
I have 3 of those (ATV3, ATV4 and Chromecast). I don't use the Apple TV remote at all, and instead rely on a Harmony setup that is common to 2 primary TV setups. We don't have cable or Sat, and instead rely on local broadcast TV (using a digital antenna) and Tivo units for DVR support. On streaming, its mostly Netflix, Hulu and Amazon.
The Chromecast was purchased for a 3rd basic TV setup in front of a treadmill and is only used for Netflix. That decision was based strictly on $.
Current ATV gear is pricey compared to competitors. That coupled with continued yearly rumors of some Apple TV service that never materialized likely didn't help with sales.
Within those same folks, there are at least 8 iPhones. For the most part, Siri is little used as its just not reliable. Here we moved to Amazon Echo, which runs circles around Siri in both features and reliability.
Apple innovation seems somewhat stalled, with their focus on the one product, iPhone, that generates something like 70% of their revenue. Even there their restrictive policies considerable limit what developers might otherwise be able to do.
The remote on the ATV 4 is much better. Clearly the product isn't compelling enough for you to buy, but it was for me. (The minor complaints I have will be solved over time with software updates/new services.)
I can honestly say, swiping on the new controller is great - but not as great as being in Netflix (in your example) and saying "Play Orange is the New Black" and Siri actually working. Siri seems way more accurate on the TV than it does on the phone, and after it understands you, it does what you want much faster, too.
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This is actually a major problem. I'm surprised Channel 4, ITV, Channel 5 and UKTV haven't ported their iOS apps to tvOS. I tweeted Channel 4 support and I think they said they have no plans to do so, but obviously that might have changed in the last few months.
It would be lovely if you could pay for Sky TV, too, and get it right on your Apple TV. Sky still get their money, and are happy, and it means Apple TV users don't have to get another box, another remote + a dish on their roof.
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Not sure why requiring a phone should be a deal breaker for the Chromecast. You need a remote for the Apple TV, ROKU and Amazon device. Consider the phone a remote. Everyone has a phone and you only need it to start streaming like any remote. It plays no part in the streaming process you can switch if off once you start the stream.
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I am trying to make sense of that last statement that Wired is 13 times slowed than wifi and was wondering if you could explain. Last time I checked the apple tv supported 100 Meg full duplex on wired. Your 13 times figure would suggest wifi running at 1300 Meg or 1.3 Gig. No sure which standard is supporting that in the real world and that is not even taking into consideration that WIFI is not a full duplex system.
I can test my wireless AC wifi router to the network at maximum of 290 meg down and 250 meg up with a gigabit internet connection.
Are you kidding me. The ATV search input is the worst UI implementation I have seen in a very long time. It's the basis of the whole experience.
One long row.....
If you think that is extremely polished , you have very low standards in UI and useability.
everytime I search for something I hate the experience .
I would argue not everyone will know who Microsoft is, people will know what XBOX is, they will know who Sony and Playstation are, they will know who Apple is.
But here, in the UK, the general public will know off the Amazon Fire TV box and the Sky NOW box, because they are heavily advertised on television.
They won't know the other's also stream media or make streaming boxes INCLUDING Apple, and they certainly won't really know what a Chrome Cast is!
For people like you, it matters. The majority of the market doesn't even know the difference. All they want to do is see their content.
There's little incentive for Sky to do that. They already have a streaming offering in NOWTV available on the ATV and pretty much every other platform. That is their hook to try to get subscibers to move to the Sky platform with associated Hardware & try to hook them in to their whole TV/Phone/Broadband offering. THAT is where they see potential for revenue growth.
Oh, and the NOW TV box? It's basically a modded Roku.
Another ignorant post. There is no 30% cost for putting the Amazon Prime app on the store. Prime videos are part of the Amazon Prime service, which is purchased on Amazon's site. So Apple would collect nothing from an Amazon Prime app on the Apple TV unless Amazon allowed direct subscriptions on the ATV itself.
ATV still lacks the reliability like cromecast. Streaming any web content from mac has lags and sync issues between audio and video. tried connecting using ethernet and all with no luck. Chromecast is much better at this.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Of course 4K makes sense in the Apple products where Apple has already embraced it
and no sense in this ONE Apple product where Apple has not yet embraced it. And when Apple rolls out the 5 "now with 4K", your anti-4K opinion should persist, which means you should be in those threads just as passionately bashing Apple for embracing the "silly" "gimmick" that doesn't belong in a "consumer" product. But we all know that won't happen. Instead, Apple will "make sense" to embrace it just as soon as they roll out a "5" that has it.
Amazing how what Apple has for sale at any given moment is the one and only perfect incarnation of such things for all people, and all other feature wants are "silly", "gimmick", etc. not suited for anyone. There is no "think different" unless that happens to align with what Apple has for sale right now. And then, as soon as Apple embraces the "silly" in a new version, all the "anti" sentiment is forgotten and that new incarnation now with the "silly" "gimmick" is the one and only perfect one for everyone (no exclusions). All hail the Apple.
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