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Netflix Not Developing App for Vision Pro Because Headset is 'Subscale' and 'Not Relevant' to Subscribers

Realityck said:
Remember the main goal is sustainability profitability this last year for majority of streaming services. Also that long strike of the writers then the actors unions was a sizable loss for streaming services. A lot of stream services are paired with their own filming studios as you know.

variety.com

Data: Which TV and Streaming Companies Are Most Vulnerable in a Writers Strike?

The squeeze of a strike will hurt, but not all entertainment companies will be impacted the same by a TV production shutdown
variety.com variety.com
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Yes I know but subscribers don't have any sympathy. It's not like we're opening our wallets to pay higher fees because we felt bad for the the studios or the actors or that we believe the content justifies the increase. If anything consumers think the studios were not being fair with the actors, not that the industry is struggling and we need to save it.

I don't necessarily think Netflix is wrong to put VR on hold for now but calling it "subscale" and "not relevant" seems unnecessarily provocative.
 
Related
www.macworld.com

Apple Vision Pro's uphill battle is only just beginning

Apps and eyeballs: All the news, rumors, and tips you missed last week.
www.macworld.com www.macworld.com

Interviewed by Stratechery last week, Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters summed up Apple’s dilemma rather neatly.

“We have to be careful about making sure that we’re not investing in places that are not really yielding a return,” he explained, “and I would say we’ll see where things go with Vision Pro. Certainly, we’re always in discussions with Apple to try and figure that out but right now, the device is so subscale that it’s not really particularly relevant to most of our members.”

And there it is. Vision Pro is too “subscale,” a polite way of saying that not many people are going to shell out $3,499 for a heavy headset with poor battery life and no killer app. (That last point is important; we’ll be coming back to that.) At the very most, a Netflix app for visionOS would be used by 500,000 people this year, and that simply isn’t worth it for the development work such a project would entail. Far better to wait and see if the thing catches on. Once Tim Cook starts using numbers that end with “illion” instead of “ousand” we can talk.

But the next problem, as eagle-eyed or owl-brained readers will have instantly perceived, is that failing to secure big-name apps like Netflix in turn makes large sales numbers less likely. Your average customer’s first reaction to the Vision Pro sales pitch will be to ask, “What do I actually do with it?” And at the moment, the answer isn’t hugely satisfactory. You have video chats with people, you look at (impressively immersive) photos and videos, and you view your Mac desktop in a huge virtual environment. “Will there be spatial videos on YouTube?” Well, maybe, but there won’t be a YouTube app. You’ll need to view it through the browser. Same for Netflix shows. Same for music on Spotify. It’s just a bit… underwhelming.

And so it goes, round and round, a vicious circle with sharp edges. Don’t get the eyeballs, you don’t get the apps. Don’t get the apps, you don’t get the eyeballs. It’s amazing that any new tech platform ever takes off, really.

There are solutions, of course. You can bully people using your corporate muscle, or bribe them with quid pro quos. (Netflix CEO Greg Peters refers cryptically to “active discussions” about “how we could help each other out. Sometimes we find a great space of overlap.” Who knows what that means?) If you promise a developer stage time at WWDC, there’s a good chance they’ll play ball. If you’re a trusted partner with a strong relationship, developers might take a punt hoping for good things in the future, but as we discussed last week, that’s not Apple’s strength.

And the extra problem that Vision Pro faces is that it’s perceived to have a high barrier to entry. When Apple started the App Store, a lot of its success can be traced to the way that bedroom developers could easily knock up a cool simple iOS game and leap to the top of the charts, which triggered a goldrush of devs looking for a piece of the action. It’s hard to imagine anyone knocking up a spatial computing app after getting home from a shift at the supermarket. This is a platform that calls for corporate resources, which means middle managers asking questions about return on investment.

The most likely outcome is that Vision Pro will prosper as a platform, simply because Apple is about as close to “too big to fail” as exists in the tech industry today. Big names may stay away at first, but a few medium-sized developers will make a decent amount of money in the vacuum they leave, and things will gradually take off; a vicious circle can quickly be replaced by a virtuous one once momentum starts to build. I just can’t see it happening quickly, which will be a test of Apple’s patience. Netflix isn’t the only company that gets annoyed by things that are “not really yielding a return.”
 
Realityck said:
Related
www.macworld.com

Apple Vision Pro's uphill battle is only just beginning

Apps and eyeballs: All the news, rumors, and tips you missed last week.
www.macworld.com www.macworld.com

Interviewed by Stratechery last week, Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters summed up Apple’s dilemma rather neatly.
Click to expand...
A lot of stargazing, eh? The editors need to meet the content quota, so the ink spills freely. YT is also full of 18 minute videos about a product that hasn't been released yet, getting subscribers primed for more videos. Nothing in this piece is particularly insightful either. It's easy to say "well it depends on how patient Apple is" and "we want returns on our investments." Of course it depends on these and other factors. It's not rocket science as they say.

The one thing this editor admits is that Netflix' cryptic "active discussions" is, well, cryptic. So let's call them out for that.
 
Blue Nova said:
Netfilx is moving very slow with their technology. They can’t even fix their subtitles situation. You can’t change the size of your font, you are limited to, too small too large and huge you can’t even put a black background and change color from 0 to 100.
Click to expand...

I think this depends on the platform/player. You can’t change anything in the Apple TV app, but if you go to netflix.com in your browser and log in to your account, you can change subtitle settings there. As far as I remember, anyway, I haven’t used Netflix in a while.

The real question here isn’t why Netflix isn’t making a Vision Pro app, but why they are forbidding the existing iPad app to be installed on Vision Pro. If the latter is indeed the case (how can we be sure, has anyone tried?) then that would reek of spite.
 
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dotnet said:
The real question here isn’t why Netflix isn’t making a Vision Pro app, but why they are forbidding the existing iPad app to be installed on Vision Pro. If the latter is indeed the case (how can we be sure, has anyone tried?) then that would reek of spite.
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Some frameworks that exist in iOS/IPadOS don't exist in VisionOS. Can't assume it's an easy port for every developer of iPadOS apps.
developer.apple.com

Bringing your existing apps to visionOS | Apple Developer Documentation

Build a version of your iPadOS or iOS app using the visionOS SDK, and update your code for platform differences.
developer.apple.com developer.apple.com
 
SactoGuy18 said:
I think because the Vision Pro is such a highly niche device with a relatively short battery life, Netflix will refrain from developing an app for this device (for now). They'll wait until Apple releases a far cheaper version and with at least four hours battery life per charge.
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BTW - the AVP can connect to a USB-C charger for unlimited usage, though you probably won’t want marathon sessions with an early headset like this.
 
dotnet said:
I think this depends on the platform/player. You can’t change anything in the Apple TV app, but if you go to netflix.com in your browser and log in to your account, you can change subtitle settings there. As far as I remember, anyway, I haven’t used Netflix in a while.

The real question here isn’t why Netflix isn’t making a Vision Pro app, but why they are forbidding the existing iPad app to be installed on Vision Pro. If the latter is indeed the case (how can we be sure, has anyone tried?) then that would reek of spite.
Click to expand...
From end-user's perspective, this may seem trivial, but for Netflix, it may not be that simple. Lets say that they allowed Netflix iPad app to be used on a platform that it wasn't designed for and it was not working as the users had expected, who would users blame for the bad Netflix experience? The average consumers might not even know or care that the app was not native and probably point their fingers at Netflix and say their service sucks.
 
TheNotch said:
From end-user's perspective, this may seem trivial, but for Netflix, it may not be that simple. Lets say that they allowed Netflix iPad app to be used on a platform that it wasn't designed for and it was not working as the users had expected, who would users blame for the bad Netflix experience? The average consumers might not even know or care that the app was not native and probably point their fingers at Netflix and say their service sucks.
Click to expand...

iPad apps that can be installed on the Mac but haven’t been tested there come with a note in the App Store that says “Designed for iPad. Not verified for macOS.” Something like this is all that’s required for Netflix to be off the hook with support issues.
 
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Netflix is the king of refusing to grant Apple customers a positive User Experience. This is not at all surprising coming from the company that refuses to let their ATV app integrate with the Apple TV app. Guess how that went? I stopped watching anything on Netflix because my Up Next was filled with content from OTHER services and now Netflix hasn't gotten a dime of my money in years.
Par for the course.
 
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Skyscraperfan said:
If you pay for a Netflix subscription, you make criminals rich. Netflix pays criminals millions for their help on a documentary about their crime.

I wonder if one day a criminal will only commit a crime to get a Netflix deal later.

Netflix also pays annoying people like Harry and Meghan.

Monetarized content pretty much destroyed the internet.
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If you don't like the content don't watch it. If it's not watched it won't be funded. Once funded, any content creator can and and should expect that people pay for that content.
 
vipergts2207 said:
At $3500 a pop, I don’t think you’ll have to worry about that. Seriously, I’m struggling to understand who this device is aimed at. The average consumer is never going to pay a month’s take home pay for a toy like this.
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Oh man, there are a lot of people with disposable income nowadays. That’s becoming more and more Apple’s target (see iPad rumors regarding prices)
 
Greg Peters is Subsubscale. What a petty and shortsighted comment. He can take my Netflix subscription and shove it as I cancel it tomorrow. Netflix has continued to bring less and less value to the consumer under his leadership. Sooner than later this will be reflected in the stock price. Cancelling my subscription along with most people I know and shorting the stock.
 
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Netminus said:
Greg Peters is Subsubscale. What a petty and shortsighted comment. He can take my Netflix subscription and shove it as I cancel it tomorrow. Netflix has continued to bring less and less value to the consumer under his leadership. Sooner than later this will be reflected in the stock price. Cancelling my subscription along with most people I know and shorting the stock.
Click to expand...
My goodness, you’d think he insulted your mom.
 
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