Apple TV+ gets a new, familiar name
As a little addendum to the press release announcing when “F1: The Movie” would be available to stream Apple changed the name of its video streaming service from Apple TV+ to… Apple TV:
Apple TV+ is now simply Apple TV, with a vibrant new identity.
Naturally, the obvious joke that occurred to everyone reading this news was “Apple TV in the Apple TV app on the Apple TV” —or some nearly identical variation on that. How confusing it is that they are all named the same thing!
But they aren’t actually named the same thing. That little black box Apple sells has been named Apple TV 4K for the last eight years. The TV app has a big Apple logo in its icon, but it’s still the TV app, or Apple’s TV app, not “the Apple TV app.”
Of course I wish Apple had never named its service Apple TV+, or any derivation of an existing product, but we’re way past that now. Unless you have a time machine to go back to 20191, there’s no point inventing a completely new name. It’s too late to call it Apple Rainbow or Apple Stream. Everyone already calls it Apple TV. This announcement is just catching up with reality.
This is the company that sells you a MacBook Pro M4 Pro and a MacBook Pro M4 Max. Naming isn’t its strong suit, and this is hardly the most confusing thing it has ever done.
Yes, this is all quite grating for nerds—what a polluted namespace!—but most people are much less focused on these details and it all burs together into Apple TV-ness. Sure, you’ll still need to ask clarifying questions about what someone is referring to when it isn’t obvious from context, but it mostly is obvious:
“F1: The Movie” is coming to Apple TV December 12th.
Is that confusing in any way?
There’s certainly room for improvement on coordinating the announcement of this rebrand so that it coincides with the name appearing on Apple platforms. The developer beta that was just released this morning uses the new rainbow gradient Apple TV logo (“a vibrant new identity,” I guess), but most of the interface elements are still labeled “Apple TV+.” Maybe next beta?
At least now, when we’re talking to normal people and they say things like, “I’m watching The Studio on Apple TV,” we won’t have some little gnawing urge to say, “You mean Apple TV+?”
Think of how much more likable we’ll all be after that! What a real plus!
- If you do have a time machine please don’t waste it on Apple product names. We need real help. ↩
[Joe Rosensteel is a VFX artist and writer based in Los Angeles.]
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