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I'm going to make myself really unpopular here and say that if you're not using the apple tv for airplay then there are probably plenty of cheaper, more functional alternatives.

(bear in mind in the UK they cost around $165, not $99, therefore the case is better for the apple tv in US)
I use Apple TV mostly for AirPlay as most of the people that I know who have an Apple TV and a couple of other Apple devices. Who buys an Apple TV without owning any Apple products?
 
Roku is currently a better platform IMO, but their CEO is clearly anticipating ATV gaming, which will blow Roku out of the water.

This is what I believe…. Obviously, the iTunes eco system is not easy to compete with and if Apple add games, Roku will be left in the dust. It has to scare them.

Dumb statement by their CEO.
 
its true. I have apple tv sitting some where , i don't know. because of apple F@##ing closed system.. NO PLEX ..

I am happy with chromecast & plex app..

.. Before i had plans to buy appletv for each tv in home but nah

chromecast is much better in terms of openness ..
 
I can agree with this, my parents and I use ATV with iPad to stream from MovieBox on iPad to ATV.
 
I accept that Roku products have more functionality and are possibly of better quality than Apple products. It just puzzles me that Roku's CEO would explicitly name the competition at an event where he's supposed to be talking up his company's products.

Hint: the same happened with the PC vs. Mac ads - from Apple...
 
What he MEANT to say was ...

"The Apple TV is so great, we decided to make a device that looks exactly like a Chinese knock-off of the Apple TV! We plan to utilize out Walmart store displays to trick people into thinking they're getting the same thing because it's a black puck with a light on the front. They won't know the difference"
 
That's funny about 30 if my friends own an Apple TV and I am the only one to own a roku ( and Atv) and that's only to use plex

Apple do need to get an AppStore on it already..
 
Hint: the same happened with the PC vs. Mac ads - from Apple...


In that case Apple was the underdog. If Roku has the best quality streaming devices as the CEO seems to make out his company's products to be, I'm not really sure what they would achieve by attacking Apple TV, other than diverting attention away from their products and onto Apple TV.
 
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I would never buy any streaming device. When I pay for something, I want something tangible in return which is not heavily reliant on the Internet and my download quota. I prefer a physical copy instead of DRM and region restrictions, which I refuse to accept and will not support. I control and decide where to play, no one else. I pay I play my way. Plus I prefer Blu-Ray, but not downloading 40GB per movie. Hell even the iTunes movies are not BD quality either, so why would I use their service?

I can buy a BD movie, make my own backup copy with no region restrictions, no DRM, play where and when I want, no downloads required, and have the original disc for a backup and BD quality as well. So why would I use the Internet route when Im paying more for less and I have to obtain it myself?

Between Netflix and HBO GO, we stream many hours of content a week. That's much more cost effective than buying discs, assuming that they're even available for every TV program and movie that we watch. As bandwidth increases and/or becomes less expensive, video disc sales will decrease, much as has happened with music.
 
What he MEANT to say was ...

"The Apple TV is so great, we decided to make a device that looks exactly like a Chinese knock-off of the Apple TV! We plan to utilize out Walmart store displays to trick people into thinking they're getting the same thing because it's a black puck with a light on the front. They won't know the difference"

That's probably the best theory to understand how Roku has sold even one unit against a vastly superior Apple TV experience.
 
I bought an Apple TV for my parents, and they love it. £99 for the device then £5.99 on Netflix a month for a good selection of TV programmes and movies is a pretty good deal to me. I have only ever used AirPlay once with my iPad.

Err... it is?

Given any number of £30 - 50 devices in the UK (Chromecast, Roku boxes, Blu-ray players) would provide access to Netflix and a host of other free streaming services such as iPlayer for a fraction of the cost, and most of them with a better UI to boot?

That's an odd definition of a pretty good deal, to be blunt.
 
How does he know whether Apple loses money?

I have a hard time believing it anyway.

Apple reuses A5s with a defective core by disabling it and ending up with a single-core A5. Those CPUs are virtually free since they'd otherwise be wasted. This practice is known as product binning and is a great way of producing low-cost products using scrap from more expensive products lines (in this case iOS devices).

The rest of the components seem really inexpensive to me. Small plastic case, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth antennas, 8GB NAND, small power supply... I doubt the cost of all those surpasses $99, in fact it probably doesn't surpass $50.

iSuppli estimated those components cost $45 in 2010. Now it's pretty safe to think most have gone in down in price, especially those 8GB of NAND (the most expensive component back then).

I'd like to know based on what maths he believes Apple is taking a loss, because to me it looks like yet another high-margin product.
 
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Roku is currently a better platform IMO, but their CEO is clearly anticipating ATV gaming, which will blow Roku out of the water.

Now hold on... We would need to define better here. I now have two ATVs, but I looked at roku and almost bought it. However, in my analysis, I determined that the integration into the Apple ecosystem beat out some of the feature advantages of roku. Therefore, if you are an apple user like me (iMac, MacBook Air, ipad, 2 iPhones, time capsule), then I believe the ATV is better. If you are not bought into the apple ecosystem, then roku is better than any thing out there including google's chromecast.

I find that too many people discount the power of the ecosystem and the apple integration. I do not. I find that very important to me and I find no other company doing as good a job as Apple in this respect.
 
I'd like to know where this guy got his inside info on the Apple TV manufacturing and advertising costs to determine Apple are making a loss...
 
He is partly right. It is an accessory for the iPad. And the iPhone. And the iPod touch. And any Mac produced in the past few years. And an independent device.

Anyone who calls it "just" a media extended that doesn't do anything the Roku, Chromecast, TiVo, etc. do. None of those have access to iTunes. That is the "killer" app for those in the Apple ecosystem.
 
I own a Roku instead of an atv because at the time my tv did not have hdmi. It was cheaper to buy the Roku, and plex served our movies. It's worked well for us... Now that the tv was upgraded, I probably will buy an atv at refresh... Depends,

But I'd really like the Roku with the headphone jack remote in the bedroom, now that is an awesome invention.
 
How does Apple lose money on the Apple TV? It's an HDMI port, an old ARM chip and some plastic. They're probably raking it in on it.

He is right about it being an accessory for the iPad though. I mean if you're not going to use it to stream from one Apple device to your TV, what's the point of it? Roku has way more channels and features and if you have a PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii, Wii U, a smart TV, etc. then it already equals or beats it in features and channels.
 
Not so fast mate.


LOL! That's ironic coming from someone with an with an obsessive compulsive disorder to be the first to reply to as many new Macrumors news postings as possible. Think again if you assume a mass of inane posts gets you blogs hits..

As for this Roku fella.. Well, to be fair, he's not entirely wrong, is he?
 
I'm going to make myself really unpopular here and say that if you're not using the apple tv for airplay then there are probably plenty of cheaper, more functional alternatives.

(bear in mind in the UK they cost around $165, not $99, therefore the case is better for the apple tv in US)

Or if you don't use iTunes Match or buy music/TV/movies on iTunes...so basically, if you use NO Apple products, buy a Roku.

Airplay isn't even the important feature.
 
How does Apple lose money on the Apple TV? It's an HDMI port, an old ARM chip and some plastic. They're probably raking it in on it.

He is right about it being an accessory for the iPad though. I mean if you're not going to use it to stream from one Apple device to your TV, what's the point of it? Roku has way more channels and features and if you have a PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii, Wii U, a smart TV, etc. then it already equals or beats it in features and channels.

I'm lost here, I have never used my Apple TV with an iPad, what would you do with it that you cannot do direct to the TV with the remote?
 
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