The ATV has been around for 15 years, the same naysayers have been around for a long time. It’s had a pretty long life, and it’s still going. People were saying the same about the Mac Mini, and look at it now.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Has the AppleTV been a failure?
- Thread starter jwolf6589
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Well I guess it depends on how you judge a success? The Shield TV doesn't sell millions because they don't make that many of them, but it's considered a success.
No one will match the Fire TV stick though, because if it's price to performance ratio. Or the convenience of built in apps on TVs. Most won't buy a streaming device if their smart TV offers them.
I would love the Apple TV to support VPN apps though like Nord VPN, I use that at the moment to watch F1 on the F1 app that is in the store. But as it isn't I still have to use my Fire TV stick.
I think design wise and user interface and performance wise the Apple TV is a success. I like it anyway.
No one will match the Fire TV stick though, because if it's price to performance ratio. Or the convenience of built in apps on TVs. Most won't buy a streaming device if their smart TV offers them.
I would love the Apple TV to support VPN apps though like Nord VPN, I use that at the moment to watch F1 on the F1 app that is in the store. But as it isn't I still have to use my Fire TV stick.
I think design wise and user interface and performance wise the Apple TV is a success. I like it anyway.
Someone at my church offered me a free Amazon stick or google stick but I am gonna tell him this weekend I have my ATV and found a way for a certain app to run on it that he says was only for the stick streaming devices.
It’s airplay, Bluetooth, photos, podcasts, music, among other features that integrate well with my other apple devices.
I use my 4K Apple TV for everything apart from the F1, it's a shame they don't support VPN Apps on it, they fully support all of them on all iOS devices, and they also have all the same streaming apps too? I can change the DNS setting on the Apple TV if I want but it seems like a faff, maybe I'll give that a go though.
I have used streaming boxes for years, I got the first Fire TV box that was launched in the U.K., still have it too, and was hooked to them ever since. Had several Shield TV's, but my new as of Christmas 4K Apple TV is my first one, I really like its interface even if it can be a bit buggy at times. They did a good job with it.
That's nice to hear. My experiences with Apple TV have been the antithesis of "it just works". That made the locked-in nature of the Apple TV a poor option for me.
I've always loved my Apple TV but hated the remote. The new Apple TV Remote is fantastic!
A big problem with the new remote is you cannot use it with gaming on some apps, including Apple Arcade games.
Would have been nice to have Apple fix the problems with the Siri Remote, without creating more problems on the new one.
More problems???? I have not experienced any with the new remote. I don’t play games however.
I am using Gen 2 Apple TV, and I am happy with it. I would like to buy a new one, but the problem with Apple TV is it is incredibly expensive for what it's doing. It is not like iPhone vs Samsung debate where hardware quality also matters while choosing a smartphone. Nobody cares about design or quality of a streaming device, it just runs Netflix and some stuff and does Airplay, and I can do the same with a cheap Xiaomi stick for 1/5 of the Apple TV price. I also don't know anyone plays games on Apple TV too.
I think they will lower the price in near future and subsidize it to become a gate opener for the ecosystem. There are a lot of subscription potential on Apple TV; but none of them are realizing because it does not worth to pay this price for that hardware. Also, smart TV's are eating Apple TV's market too.
I think they will lower the price in near future and subsidize it to become a gate opener for the ecosystem. There are a lot of subscription potential on Apple TV; but none of them are realizing because it does not worth to pay this price for that hardware. Also, smart TV's are eating Apple TV's market too.
Actually it does far more than just he competition. Airplay, Bluetooth (AirPods) , setting a new one up by simply holding one’s iPhone next to it, photos app, music and podcast app, easy connection to iPhone or iPad to type, airplay etc…
I recently upgraded from the HD to the 4K and am loving it. A $200 well spent.
The age old wisdom--what you pay is what you get--applies here just like anywhere else.
Yes the AppleTV is expensive. No debate there. But it's also the most stable, consistent, and ad-free set-top streaming box out there.
I've used various Xiaomi and other no-name AndroidTV sticks, (mostly to get pirated international channels for my parents grandparents), and they're so much trouble I hate them. They don't receive timely updates, they get slow over time, they display ads. They light up my pi-hole server with requests to all sorts of foreign addresses. I think I've had to upgrade my mom's Xiaomi stick roughly every 2 years just to keep up with updates. And I've read many of them are susceptible to botnets, if not out of the box already.
Roku and FireTV sticks might be a tad more secure, but they're no better in terms of speed and advertising.
At the end of the day, I'd rather spend $150 once for a device that just works in a set-it-and-forget-it way for many years, than constantly be fighting a $30 stick to work and that needs replacing after only a year or two and bombards me with ads and connects to sketchy domains every few seconds.
Fwiw, I still have a launch-day 4th-gen AppleTV (now called, "HD") that has been working great for nearly 7 years now on a 1080p TV. No issues, still gets all the updates. I paid $150 for it new, so that's roughly $20/yr now but I don't see any reason it won't keep working for many more years. Surely no Xiaomi stick would have lasted nearly as long.
Before it I had a 2nd gen and 3rd gen AppleTV. I think I got about 5-7 years out of each of those too. I also had the 1st-gen AppleTV, though that was a whole other beast that I messed with XBMC and all. Fun times.
The problems are related to gaming, so if you do not game, you probably wouldn't notice.
The new remote is missing some of the sensors that the original has.
If talking about playing games on tvOS, you are not alone.
Like I said in my original post, you have to define what one considers a "failure" to answer the question of the thread, but gaming is one of the biggest failures of the platform.
The seeds of failure started with the launch of tvOS, self-inflicted by Apple, and while Apple has since backpedaled on a lot of the gaming-related problems with the Apple TV, the initial problems killed the momentum from gaming developers.
So many tvOS version of games have been abandoned. This is a failure, imo.
Okay but I don’t really care about games and have not since 2003-2007 or so when I bought a Gameboy advance. Still have that bigger and the batteries last many months since I don’t play it often.
I am not asking you to.
Just pointing out problems with the new Siri Remote and the state of tvOS gaming to illustrate my argument that there are things that could be considered failures on the Apple TV.
While you do not game (with the exception of your 20 year old gameboy), a lot of people do. Gaming is a huge industry. $50 billion+ a year in the US alone, and over $200 billion world wide, with almost 3 billion active gamers. Game related iOS purchases make up a significant portion of Apple's App Store revenue, so Apple clearly benefits from gaming.
Having the potential revenue stream of gaming on the Apple TV, then blow it like Apple did, could be considered a failure.
I said it before, I consider the Apple TV to be the best streaming box.
But I also think it is overprice, and way overpowered for just a streaming box. Apple has failed to make it more than just a streaming box (at least, so far), and it is too expensive to be competitive with the much cheaper and almost as good streaming alternatives.
On every wishlist on MR that I participate in, I mention having a web browser on tvOS. FaceTime would also be nice. I doubt a Safari or any other web browser will ever happen.
I don't think the TV will ever happen, at least not in the traditional sense. Maybe tvOS or FaceTime could be added to Apple's Studio monitor at some point.
Actually, I would settle for FaceTime working with an iPhone via AirPlay with landscape video on the Apple TV. Why doesn't this work? Seems like it would be an easy fix for Apple to do.
I guess we could call that another Apple TV failure.
Depends upon what "well" means. Some companies would consider over 30 million units sold a roaring success. Compared with over a billion iPhone sales are less so.
Apple Statistics (2025)
Apple is one of the most influential and recognisable brands in the world, responsible for the rise of the smartphone with the iPhone. Valued at over $2 trillion in 2021, it is also the most valuable technology company in the world. Originally known for desktop computers, Apple was one of the...
www.businessofapps.com
Apple sold almost 30 million appleTV units last year? Not bad. But I see compared to the competition not good but still that’s a profit.Depends upon what "well" means. Some companies would consider over 30 million units sold a roaring success. Compared with over a billion iPhone sales are less so.
Apple Statistics (2025)
Apple is one of the most influential and recognisable brands in the world, responsible for the rise of the smartphone with the iPhone. Valued at over $2 trillion in 2021, it is also the most valuable technology company in the world. Originally known for desktop computers, Apple was one of the...
I could be wrong, but I don't think Apple sold anywhere close to 30 million Apple TVs in any given year.
My media room has the Smart tv, xbox, apple TV, and a 4K bluray player. The Apple TV gets the most use out of all of them for entertainment. The Xbox has a thing where it won’t do surround sound because of the headset I use for gaming, and the Blu-ray player I only use for discs….everything else is on Apple TV.
Yeah, that makes much more sense. Apple would kill to have 30 million Apple TV sales in one year.
I remember some time in the early 2010's when Apple announced it hit the 1 million unit sales of the Apple TV 2, and that was a pretty big deal. I think it actually led the streaming boxes sales back then, not counting gaming consoles.
A few years later, Apple would double their price for the streaming device, while others would offer a low-cost model.
Maybe not that much profit.
If you want to believe John Gruber, Apple doesn't make any profit from Apple TV sales:
Gruber: Apple TV is Sold at Cost, HomePod at Slight Loss
On the latest episode of The Talk Show, Daring Fireball's John Gruber discusses Apple TV and HomePod pricing and whether Apple is charging too much for some of its products. According to Gruber, Apple is actually selling the 2017 Apple TV 4K at cost, suggesting the device costs Apple $180 to...
forums.macrumors.com