Before going into some replies, I just want to point and laugh at
how absolutely tone-deaf this piece from The New Yorker is on this topic.
This was an overstatement. The Apple TV demonstration débuted with an (admittedly handsome) animated screensaver, of all things—that digital curtain that drops whenever your back is turned, whenever, in fact, you’re not interested in Apple TV. And behind the drape? We saw a host of features that are already familiar to Google Android users: the ability to search and filter films or television shows by director or actor, for example; or to rewind and fast forward via voice control; or to connect to streaming-music services.
It's like they don't even know what company they're talking about. Apple lives in markets where competitors do the same thing and often did it first. Consumers of Apple hardware seem to be of the mind that they want something that does it best in their estimation. And no one who has tried it has yet denied that Apple TV has more going for it in both perception and actuality with regards to being best in class in its product category.
In the TV context, the App Store cannot have the same urgency or centrality. Most consumers will feel satisfied once they have downloaded the apps that show them their favorite television shows. And, in the long term, the App Store or something like it will inevitably come installed on the menu screen of every smart TV that rolls off the production line. The set-top box will become redundant. It is in this way alone that Apple TV will participate in “the future of television.”
Completely discounting the flaws in the Smart TV experience as though it's somehow on par with what Apple is offering from a usability standpoint is also laughable. If Smart TVs were so great at doing the things they do, Apple TV wouldn't even earn a second glance. But they well and truly don't have an experience worth talking about and everyone knows it, except for the writer of this piece, apparently. TV manufacturers have left so much on the table - or on the TV stand, if you will - that it's rather embarrassing. Redundancy can't exist in a market that doesn't refine its offerings, instead of just ticking a box and leaving it to rot like "Smart TV" seems to have.
And from the standpoint of apps, there is not the kind of brand loyalty at play in the television market to offer platform-locked apps, so the need for something to plug into the television will always be there so that the things they buy carry over, which is part of why the Apple ecosystem flourished the way it has.
It's actually a shame for Apple that they were forced to drop the price to be competitive. At its old price of $99, it makes the jump to $149 seem a lot easier. So you'd still have your lower tier at $99 for those that want it and basic functionality, but it's an easier upsell at $149. I think going from $69 to $149 is a bit harder to do. For a set top box, it feels like the price has been set with an expectation of $100 or less and you'd have to be really compelling to go beyond that. So, it'll be interesting to see how the apps will make the difference early on to push someone to that higher level, especially with the $69 version still out there.
I think you're going to see retailers like Best Buy drop the bargain Apple TV from their stores first and it becoming a de facto Apple exclusive, should there be an actual marketing push for the new model. Apple TV as it exists today is not a regularly moving stock, and stores will be justified pulling the SKU off shelves to retail only the more marketable model and making the prior model web-exclusive first before eventually not re-ordering more inventory.
It's pretty well an inevitability that it will fade away even if Apple keeps selling it (which it won't do for long, either), in favour of a better-selling new hotness that retailers can reasonably expect to move. And with the prior model off store shelves, it's not that hard of a sell when it's the only model on offer and it's the one that is (likely) actually advertised for the 2nd time in Apple TV's entire history, if not the very first. The reason Apple TV sells so poorly is that so few people know it even exists.
Apple wants Apple TV out of "hobby" status, and it's set to achieve that. Hell, this is the first time I can recall that their TV ambitions got their own section on the product header of their website. They're ready to market this thing for all it's worth, previous generation be damned.
"Cheapskates" perfectly describes the dolts who decided to remove outputs on the new 150-200 dollar device.
I like how you used "outputs" in plural when only one was removed.
There's a huge market still out there that doesn't own a streaming player yet, $30 hasn't swayed them. The App Store will absolutely be a competitive advantage, and I'm betting we see some actual Apple advertising this time. $149 is still cheap enough to be an impulse buy while picking up a new iPhone 6S or iPad Pro.
Yeah, you've got it. They've got a more compelling product, and a more compelling product makes a higher price point an irrelevance, especially when it's still sub-$200.
And yeah, they're going to advertise this, all right, especially if they want them in homes before they enact on some of their larger ambitions for it.
