You said Apple TV ?

[MasterMaCanada59]

This is an open letter send to Apple about different meanings of « Apple TV » :

Dear Mister Tim Cook and all Apple TV team,
I confess right away that I am a complete fan of what is called "Apple TV" ( TV ).
My only complaint is that this name refers to a multitude of very different products and technologies and that this has ended up creating significant confusion.
The same term refers equally to a console, a streaming service, an application that is available in the different Apple devices under different systems: console (tvOS), iPhone (iOS), iPad (iPadOS), Mac (macOS). In addition, there is an application that is found on a multitude of non-apple devices like smart TVs, Playstation, Xbox, Roku, and many more.
And the last but not the least, "Apple TV" ( TV ) also refers to a website especially for PCWindows, Android and some macOS users (10.14 and under).
With all variations of "Apple TV" ( TV ) it must be recognized that a cat couldn't locate its own kitten!

If I had received 10 bucks every time I had to explain the different uses of the term "Apple TV" I would be a millionaire today !
I even created an explanatory document of the different meanings of this term intended to my family and friends.
So here is my request:
It would be desirable to clarify and change the name of the different technologies associated with the name "Apple TV"
( TV ).
The « rest of us » need this. Please !

Regards,
My name,
CANADA

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Almost always spun as Marketing Geniuses, Apple messed this one up bad. I too spend a fair chunk of time explaining that an AppleTV app on a smart TV is NOT the same as an AppleTV box... just as any one app on iPhone is not the same as iPhone (the device). Clever naming is usually Apple's thing but this seemed lazy... and readily breeds broad confusion (particularly undermining the perception of the need for AppleTV (the box).

So imagine:

• Apple Entertainment: AE, not to be confused with A&E, another entertainment brand
• Apple Motion Pictures: AMP, not to be confused with A/V hardware
• Apple Movies: AM, not to be confused with a form of radio
• Apple Pictures: AP, not to be confused with the news entity, some kind of photograph archive, screen savers, etc.
• Apple Studios: AS, not to be confused with a college degree, a U.S. territory, a number of medical conditions, or one notch ahead of BS
• Apple Studio Services: (I'll just leave it at that) Apple Studio Streaming Entertainment Services?
• Apple Creative Media Enterprises: ACME, not to be confused with Wile E. Coyotes favorite retailer
• Apple Creative Arts: ACA, not to be confused with a national health care program
• Apple Television Entertainment: ATE, not to be confused with the Ansi Text Editor, or describing what was just consumed in a meal
• Apple Broadcasting Creative: ABC, not to be confused with a popular network
• Apple Broadcasting Entertainment: ABE, not to be confused with the 16th President or Mr. Vigoda
• Apple Movie Studios: AMS, not to be confused with the American Mathematical Society
• Apple Pictures & Broadcasting: APB, not to be confused with urgently trying to capture some bad guys
• Apple Pictures International: API, not to be confused with programming guides
• Apple Limited: just to stir up and likely lose another court battle with The Beatles
• Apple Television & Movies: ATM, not to be confused as a source of quick cash out of your own account for a fat fee (come to think of it, AAPL probably will want to get into this one)
• Apple Movies & Television: AMT, not to be confused with the dreaded Alternative Minimum Tax

And that's just for starters.

There certainly did seem to be great opportunity to name 3 or 4 distinct things differently. But then again, this came on the heels of well over a decade of buying or renting movies & TV shows from a service called iTUNES.

 

[Boyd01]

I agree - it's a mess and causes quite a lot of confusion here in the forums. There used to be one distinction, it's just called the "TV" app on the Mac instead of "Apple TV".

But since there's an Apple icon, it's natural for people to call it Apple TV. I guess Apple thought things weren't confusing enough, so now they are calling the TV app "Apple TV" on their website...

 

[bluespark]

You're absolutely right, and it's even worse than you described because Apple TV "plus" is a subset of what is available on an Apple TV.

Also, stuff like this has a real effect. Sony PlayStation Vue was by far the best streaming television app, but it had less market penetration than Hulu, DirecTV Stream, and others because people assumed you needed a PlayStation to access it or that it was somehow connected to the PlayStation. It wasn't -- it was a TV streaming app available on most streaming boxes -- but it's not hard to see how people didn't understand that from its name.