It's nice and all, but I really don't understand why the Apple TV needs to be updated.
I have an Apple TV 4K 1st-gen from 2017 and responsiveness/performance has never been an issue at all. I'm constantly updated to the latest tvOS; still works as well as the day I got it. I'm sure the 4K 2nd and 3rd gen would perform even better but I don't see how much quality of life improvement there could be.
What are people doing on their Apple TV that would require constant upgrading? I mean, for iPhones and Macs, I get it. Just don't get it for Apple TV. Somebody illuminate?
Maybe Apple is running out of enough the A12 soon? Or maybe there is more economy (profit) for Apple to use A15 instead?
I don't believe this product demands "constant upgrading." Maybe this is simply about selling new people a lower cost AppleTV that happens to have more power than the prior version... a very, very common approach for all tech sellers?
Those who already have the last gen 4K version probably do not need this one... anymore than those with iPhone 12/13 probably don't need iPhone 14... or those with M1 MBpro probably don't need M2 MBpro.
However, there are FARRRRRRRRRRR more people in the world who do not own an AppleTV at all. One of the biggest bits of rationale: "too expensive." This model costs considerably less than AppleTV cost a few days ago and offers more power. Maybe it will draw in some of them?
I've owned EVERY AppleTV from the beginning. I think it is a fantastic product, far underrated by even the fandom. It and iPad Mini 6 compete for what I would call my
FAVORITE Apple product... and I make my living on Macs (have a Studio Ultra). I purchased the 128GB version yesterday, mostly to get the ethernet port. Why? I've noticed that every upgrade's greater power makes all of it work better/faster/etc (the same rationale we use to spend thousands on upgrading other stuff from Apple). Stutters seem to become fewer with more robust hardware. UI is more fluid. The ability to playback
everything is improved.
Anyone who upgraded to an iPhone 13/14 because their XS or so was feeling "long in tooth" mostly spent that fresh approx. $1000 for the chip inside
this product. That XS or so also had a great camera, case, battery, screen too... and also ran pretty much all the apps a 13/14 can run. Why was it worth $1000 but this is not worth $150?
The most unique thing about this ONE Apple product vs. all of the others is how we will fall all over ourselves to pay up for slightly more power in everything else- even setting alarm clocks to get up in the wee hours to try to be first to spend $1000+ to get one- but for this
ONE product, no price is low enough. IMO, Apple has done a terrible job of presenting the value proposition of AppleTV. Even the fandom expresses their valuation doubts.
I've paid much more than $150 for far weaker prior generations of this very product. Gen 1 ran on a Pentium M processor, could only output (barely) 720p and started at $299. I happily paid the $399 to get a whopping 160GB of spinning hard drive storage inside.
Had this rolled out at $199 or even $249, I would have quickly grabbed one yesterday too. Given how useful and enjoyable it is for me and mine, I'd probably have jumped on it at upwards of $299. iPhone 13 Pro Max power for only $130-150 seems beyond a bargain to me.