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Roku CEO Calls Apple TV a 'Money Loser', Says Product is 'Essentially' an Accessory for iPad
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I like Apple products but the apple TV sucks compared to the Roku. If you've never used a Roku before then you need to shut up. The Roku is pretty awesome and there's plenty of content to back it up.
The Roku 3 is 99 the Apple TV is 99 and the Roku does way more, has more channels, and way faster.
The Roku 3 is 99 the Apple TV is 99 and the Roku does way more, has more channels, and way faster.
It's not really possible to reason one from the other. It's also not a given that the best product is the one that will eventually win. Apple's marketing resources go far beyond those of available to the Roku, although Apple doesn't heavily market the Apple TV.
Roku CEO Calls Apple TV a 'Money Loser', Says Product is 'Essentially' an Acc...
Interesting response with much that I hadn't considered. Thanks!
Interesting response with much that I hadn't considered. Thanks!
I read a large number of comments mocking Roku's CEO and made a judgement call. If you want to call it "imagining psychological drama", then go ahead.
Personally, I thought most of those critical of Roku ignored the fact that it's a pretty common tactic of smaller companies to take pot shots at the bigger players in order to create discussion about their product. And considering there are currently 328 comments about this article, I'd say it worked.
This isn't rocket science, here. It's business as usual.
Whenever there is an article about an ad comparing a product to Apple's, you get lots of comments bashing the ad as if Apple had never done that in it's own past (they have, by the way).
Apple is now the company on top so now it's their turn for the smaller companies to take shots at them. That's nothing new.
Roku CEO Calls Apple TV a 'Money Loser', Says Product is 'Essentially' an Acc...
I feel bad for Roku because of Apple's monster marketing machine. Pretty much any time Apple has announced an update to ATV in the past it's been to bring something to ATV that Roku has had for a long time. Even with the glowing Roku reviews from tech blogs there are a lot of people in Apple/Amazon/Google bubbles that don't see the competition.
I always thought the rule about not mentioning your competitors was if you were top dog. If you are an underdog then it's fine. (Thinking of all the Mac vs PC Ads in the recent past
)
I feel bad for Roku because of Apple's monster marketing machine. Pretty much any time Apple has announced an update to ATV in the past it's been to bring something to ATV that Roku has had for a long time. Even with the glowing Roku reviews from tech blogs there are a lot of people in Apple/Amazon/Google bubbles that don't see the competition.
I always thought the rule about not mentioning your competitors was if you were top dog. If you are an underdog then it's fine. (Thinking of all the Mac vs PC Ads in the recent past
)
Thanks, yup I've known about that for a while but just use AVPlayerHD on my iPad since it's like using a native app. You know how it is. Nothing like a native solution. So close yet, so far.
IM not being a smartass but
Whats a roku? I have my appletv and love it. Along with others here the ONLY time its used with an iPad is when the remote falls in between the cushions of the couch.
Whats a roku? I have my appletv and love it. Along with others here the ONLY time its used with an iPad is when the remote falls in between the cushions of the couch.
Not to me - another good thing about the Apple TV is that it could also seamlessly work with all of their purchased material off the iTunes Store, stream their iTunes library - and I know they have used it with their iPad a lot. The UI is super-simple, just what they need. And, they use my Netflix sub, so technically it costs them nothing anyway.
They also have a Virgin Media TiVo box, and the built-in Netflix app is horrendous.
The £30-50 devices don't match up. (And Chromecast, seriously?)
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Not really.
I didn't know it existed either until I had leo mention it on his show one day about a year ago. Lots of people don't know what it is, why would they?
I have seen some people in the thread pondering sales of AppleTV versus Roku. I came across the following study conducted for 2013.
Here is a link to the story on Gigaom. It seems in terms of numbers, Roku does not have the number of international sales markets enjoyed by the AppleTV, so Roku is at a disadvantage.
FWIW, I have one Roku and two AppleTV in my house. The Roku is nice in terms of sheer channel selection as are some of the bells and whistles added with updates. Roku loses points with me for most of the update niceties targeted only toward the flagship version of late. There are something like 4 versions and only the most expensive one seems to gain features. As for my AppleTVs, they are the 720p versions and do what they do very well with updates gaining nice features even though they are no longer the flagship models. If you are invested in the Apple/iTunes ecosystem, and unless Roku has come channel(s) you desperately want, I believe the AppleTV is the obvious choice unless price is key. In which case, prepare to be disappointed with some Roku updates that leave you feeling like the proverbial redheaded stepchild.
Here is a link to the story on Gigaom. It seems in terms of numbers, Roku does not have the number of international sales markets enjoyed by the AppleTV, so Roku is at a disadvantage.
FWIW, I have one Roku and two AppleTV in my house. The Roku is nice in terms of sheer channel selection as are some of the bells and whistles added with updates. Roku loses points with me for most of the update niceties targeted only toward the flagship version of late. There are something like 4 versions and only the most expensive one seems to gain features. As for my AppleTVs, they are the 720p versions and do what they do very well with updates gaining nice features even though they are no longer the flagship models. If you are invested in the Apple/iTunes ecosystem, and unless Roku has come channel(s) you desperately want, I believe the AppleTV is the obvious choice unless price is key. In which case, prepare to be disappointed with some Roku updates that leave you feeling like the proverbial redheaded stepchild.
He has a point! as ICT admin at local school int he UK I see loads of people using Roku or Chromecast now, I spent that last few years trying to convince people to get an ATV! As seems to be more often the case now Apple spread themselves so thin that they are playing catch up rather than leading the way, ATV is severely outdated with formats and streaming now.
If they are not careful they will miss hug opportunity in the UK education sector all schools are getting Digital signage in their receptions and most are done via chrome cast I haven't seen 1 ATV setup..not only that but its certainly more cost effective than digital whiteboards. But it seems all they care about is the US..
If they are not careful they will miss hug opportunity in the UK education sector all schools are getting Digital signage in their receptions and most are done via chrome cast I haven't seen 1 ATV setup..not only that but its certainly more cost effective than digital whiteboards. But it seems all they care about is the US..
the only think I use atv is airplay and that is rare. there are times I want to watch one of my shows from projectfree tv which requires webbrowsers I bring out my atv and watch it. I hate ITUNES and I will not dump all my movies into it. I would love a native plex app and I would use the atv more
So what you are saying is you bought the AppleTV because of the logo on the box? When you bought the AppleTV, you didn't research the the competition to see what is the best product? Blindly buying things with the Apple logo is not something to be proud of.
You weren't replying to me, but I bought an Apple TV simply because I have over 3,000 TV show episodes and almost 250 movies that I bought in iTunes. I never heard of Roku at the time and even if I did, it would never have been a consideration when Apple TV fit my needs perfectly.
I love my AppleTV too and use it daily. In addition to the channels on the AppleTV, I use my AppleTV with my iPad and iPhone all the time for more than just the remote. I use Airplay with Pandora, Spotify, Amazon Instant Video, France24, NHK World, +24, and videos from other websites in general (anything from the New York Times to the Cooking Channel).
You mean outputting MKV video to the ATV?
As it's driving the ATV directly with only semi-hardware-decoded video content, the ATV can't access the original file at all (as it's not existing, at leats not in an Apple-native form). This is why such direct drive-mode is much-much inferior to native playback over AirPlay.
Currently, there is only one fix for this problem (playing back MKV files over AirPlay with the best possible quality): switching to Infuse.
I've posted tons of info on Infuse's MKV-over-AirPlay playback:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1680468/
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/18672737/
etc.
Good job ignoring the point. Apple has greater control over the supply chain and the average selling price of an Apple TV is higher than Roku. Care to explain how Roku is making money on hardware, and Apple isn't?
It's not quite that cheap unless you don't value the time you put in managing it (ripping, tagging etc), but yes sometimes it's cheaper, and sometimes its very close. The nice part is that both choices are viable options with the Apple TV.
"Apple TV is essentially an accessory for the iPad. They lose money, which is unusual for Apple," he said Thursday, speaking at the Recode conference here. "If you're losing money, why would you want to sell more?"
This bloke's obviously never heard the term "loss leader"
This bloke's obviously never heard the term "loss leader"