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

[budfoot]

I think it's time to drop Netflix. Their prices for 4K are out of control. Just subscribed to Paramount Plus. Lot's of 4K content and a native AVP app. Netflix can go ****w themselves.

Edgy. Did you just censor the word screw???

 

[Thomas Davie]

I cancelled my Netflix account on January 15th. The price kept increasing and content of interest to me kept decreasing. When introduced in Canada I was paying $6.99 Cdn. I found I had been transitioned to a 4k premium subscription without my knowledge and I was paying over 26$ Cdn. Now I find Netflix paid $5 Billion for some wrestling thing (which I obviously don’t watch b/c I have no idea exactly what it is other than wrestling.

What I watch is horror/sci-fi and I find that well served by Tubi. Their ads are minimal and non intrusive. I’ve ditched Paramount+ after the Beavis and Butthead season ended and I don’t find myself watching much from Amazon Prime (looking forward to Fallout).

Only streaming service I’ve currently got is Apple Music which I’m happy with b/c it works nicely with all my Apple products. Oh yeah, and a yearly subscription to The Trailer Park Boys ’Swearnet’

I keep getting email ads for IPTV service which seem absolutely horrible for content i watch.

I just found out last week that all of the Bowery Boys, Dead End Kids, East Side Kids and Little Tough Guys are in the public domain and available to download from archive.org so now I’ve got those. There’s 700+ episodes of Doctor Who, 156 episodes of the original The Twilight Zone and thousands of OTR. And a few hundred episodes of the podcast We’re Alive.

So Netflix….no thank-you. Dunno what happened to you, but in my opinion it isn’t good.

Tom

My local TV/Internet provider (Eastlink in Nova Scotia) recently lost 30 tv channel for which they were unable to renew the license, among them Adult Swim - but at least they dropped my monthly bill by $60 Cdn, and surprisingly they didn’t increase my imternet price to offset the difference

 

[Abazigal]

Not a big deal. This thing’s too heavy to sit and watch a film (or even an hour long TV show.) It shouldn’t be marketed for that purpose.

I don’t even see the appeal of a VR live sports environment. Broadcast TV cams have the best view. Being stuck at the 50 yard line for an NFL game would make trying to see what’s going on near the end zones a chore.

As others have said, the key to this thing working’s in the AR potential. Learning a musical instrument or a sport like golf or other skills where overlaying a digital world can greatly enhance and improve one’s abilities.

I was thinking about F1 racing a few days ago. The people sitting at the pit always felt to me like they are getting the short end of the stick. Imagine paying so much, only to stare at what is mostly an empty track most of the time, and then once in a while, the cars zip past you. I wonder if the Vision Pro could help rethink the way sports like this are consumed, where instead of being stuck in one place, I could quickly switch between multiple viewing angles and follow the action wherever they may take place.

 

[Carac]

I was thinking about F1 racing a few days ago. The people sitting at the pit always felt to me like they are getting the short end of the stick. Imagine paying so much, only to stare at what is mostly an empty track most of the time, and then once in a while, the cars zip past you. I wonder if the Vision Pro could help rethink the way sports like this are consumed, where instead of being stuck in one place, I could quickly switch between multiple viewing angles and follow the action wherever they may take place.

The use case for F1 is an AR protection of the track in front of you with Driver positions in real time while the broadcast is floating behind it.

 

[SnowCrocodile]

I've been wondering this myself ever since they launched Apple TV+. It's very clear that they're going pretty full bore into the streaming market, calculating Oscar and Emmy wins, etc. The only thing Apple TV+ lacks, aside from a decent UI and user experience, is content. They could get the breadth and scope of content they really need to justify their ridiculous price increase by spending some of those trillions on buying Netflix outright.

In one respect I kinda hope they don't do this 'cause there's been a detrimental amalgamation of studios over the last decade or so and that's not a trend I want to see continue, but on the other hand... at least then I wouldn't have to sail the high seas so much...

In other words, Apple TV+ doesn’t have much TV, it’s great otherwise.

 

[ChromeCloud]

To me it's pretty obvious what's really going on.

For a few months to a couple of years, Apple Vision Pro user base will be pretty small and made of people that are already paying for a Netflix subscription, so supporting the Vision Pro would likely translate in no appreciable additional revenues for Netflix.

On the other hand, Apple Vision Pro would be a more appealing device if it could run Netflix natively, so its sales would likely get a substantial boost from Netflix being available on the Vision Pro App Store.

So, long story short, Apple Vision Pro needs Netflix more than Netflix needs the Apple Vision Pro.

Netflix knows that and is using this situation as leverage to negotiate better economic/distribution terms with Apple (we know very well that big companies often get special treatment on the App Store compared to all the other developers).

 

[fithian]

AppleTV+, Max, Criterion. What else do I need? Waiting for Friday.

 

[CheffyDude]

A sound decision by Netflix. Netflix still has not integrated with Apple TV either…another sound decision.

 

[H.E. Pennypacker]

Didn't I read that Apple pre-sold 180,000 of them already? That hardly seems like a niche product. Some of Netflix's other platforms may not hit those numbers, and that's just the pre-sale.

And with most of these Apple platforms, the effort to "port" the code from one platform to another isn't even porting. You just need to modify it (or verify that it works as-is) to fit the UX paradigms of the device. For us to create an Apple Watch app from our iOS app is ridiculously trivial -- and that's gotta be harder than making Netflix work on Vision Pro.

Apple must have said something to tick that dude off... too bad, because a chief reason for me to buy Vision Pro is to use streaming apps like Netflix while traveling. Not smart, Netflix. I'm disappointed.

Uhhhh 180,000 units is absolutely a niche market considering there are 300 million people in the US.

 

[vipergts2207]

Uhhhh 180,000 units is absolutely a niche market considering there are 300 million people in the US.

Yeah that’s 0.05% of the U.S. population. Essentially nothing.

 

[cjbryce]

C'mon everyone, be honest, he's right. It's not just dev costs (even if we say that's only a very low $100k), it's all the additional support costs.

In terms of adding new subscribers, AVP owners would a) be a minuscule market segment and b) given the price of AVP, probably already subscribe to Netflix anyway.

In Netflix's shoes I wouldn't be rushing to develop an AVP app either. I'd hang back and see if AVP sales are worthwhile and then maybe think about an 8K* AVP-only premium service to make it worth my while.

As an aside, if you have a spare $4k to spend on AVP, you probably already have a fairly nice place to live and a fairly big TV and possibly even someone to share the experience with. The frequent-traveller use case might make sense, but that's an even smaller market segment.

*Not even sure if AVP runs 8K resolutions, and can't be bothered looking it up.

 

[victorvictoria]

Reading a lot of naiveté in these posts. Apple and Netflix are both for profit enterprises. Spending decisions are (and should be) made solely on the potential to generate revenue at a profit. If Netflix doesn't see profit potential in spending the time and money to develop a VP app, that's their decision. Apple has (and should not have) any say in the corporate decisionmaking at Netflix, any more than the reverse.

 

[bayportbob]

Many people bought AVP for a lot of money under the impression it would be a production-ready device, but that is not the case.

even Steve was prone to this, but he is now viewed as a visionary genius...

 

[Hails09]

I’m going to write to Netflix asking them to develop a native app for the Vision Pro. I suggest other AVP customers do the same.

Customer feedback is important—if they think us Premium paying “subscale” customers don’t want a native visionOS app.

They mean the value in making an app for it
Is not going to be worth it because they would have to maintain it for a few hundred thousand customers who can afford or want one.
That’s what they mean by value

 

[gnipgnop]

Apple Vison Pro is a bargain when compared to flat panel TV prices. You get a resolution that is above 4K. You get OLED. You get customizable screen sizes that can go up to as large as 100 feet. If you price 4K OLED flat panels, you're going to be over the AVP price of $3,500 at around 83 inches. And you're also not going to be getting spatial audio capability or the M2 computer and spatial computing functions.

So if you like large screen home entertainment and 4K OLED resolution/quality, it's hard to see how the AVP isn't a great deal. No wonder Sony wanted to limit how many of the microLED displays they made for the AVP!

 

[iOS Geek]

Well it’s true, the device is brand new and only like amillion units sold. It’s sub scale right now. But years from now it will make sense to put netflix on it.

I don't even think it was that much! Wasn't there a MR post about them only manufacturing 500,000 in the first year? Can't remember!

 

[Surf Monkey]

I was thinking about F1 racing a few days ago. The people sitting at the pit always felt to me like they are getting the short end of the stick. Imagine paying so much, only to stare at what is mostly an empty track most of the time, and then once in a while, the cars zip past you. I wonder if the Vision Pro could help rethink the way sports like this are consumed, where instead of being stuck in one place, I could quickly switch between multiple viewing angles and follow the action wherever they may take place.

F1 already does this with their subscription service. They don’t need to add 3D.

 

[Surf Monkey]

The use case for F1 is an AR protection of the track in front of you with Driver positions in real time while the broadcast is floating behind it.

I take it you’re not actually an F1 fan.

 

[ender78]

Not sure what you mean. The Shield runs Google TV, originally Android TV. It’s probably one of the best implementations of Google TV, with the NVIDIA processor and graphics.

How many people that you know have one? Do you have one yourself ? The Shield is a premium product and most people are sadly happy with whatever their tv has.

 

[jdawgnoonan]

Pathetic. And to act like they haven't developed even more obscure versions of their app for random platforms? This is one time they could have taken a page out of Apple’s book and just said ‘we don’t comment or speculate on future products or services.”

There are less than a few hundred thousand of these things in existence. It is very expensive. Why should Netflix not wait and see? The only reason Disney jumps on board so fast is because in many ways they are owned by Apple.

 

[albebaubles]

Reading a lot of naiveté in these posts. Apple and Netflix are both for profit enterprises. Spending decisions are (and should be) made solely on the potential to generate revenue at a profit. If Netflix doesn't see profit potential in spending the time and money to develop a VP app, that's their decision. Apple has (and should not have) any say in the corporate decisionmaking at Netflix, any more than the reverse.

Most people don't have a clue what it costs to spin up a team of highly senior engineers -- I'm with Netflix - wait until the VP proves itself.

 

[ender78]

They’re full of sh*+. It would take one person a few hours over a few weeks to port the app over. The code base and architecture is the same as iOS and iPadOS, and Xcode will do most of the work. Most of what they would need to do would be on the UI side. Netflix spends more on craft services on a mini series or movie then they would spend to port the app over.

Doing nothing is simply easier. Based on some discussion I've heard on some podcasts, devs have insinuated that the UI is much different than they expected and that they have to re-think how users will interact with their app. Getting the app working on AVP and providing and experience that is great are two different things. The second the app launches, their call centres get dozens of calls. You have to train everyone on how the app works etc. Product development is hard. Saying "most of the work is on the UI side" is the understatement of the century. Companies have to make decisions on how to prioritize their resources.

 

[ender78]

There are less than a few hundred thousand of these things in existence. It is very expensive. Why should Netflix not wait and see? The only reason Disney jumps on board so fast is because in many ways they are owned by Apple.

Name one way Disney is "owned" by Apple today. What percentage of Disney's shares does Apple own?

 

[truth_speech]

Well, if I were a developer, I too wouldn't want to develop for the App store and would want people to use web browsers instead.

 

[ender78]

Uh people who ordered a Vision Pro and have Netflix.

Not everyone wants to watch Netflix alone and on the Vision Pro. The potential market of where those two interest is small. The percentage of those that will do more than just launch the App and say cool and then move on is even smaller.