by Jason Snell
‘The bold, old Apple TV’
Joe Steel shares my discontent in the Apple TV’s stasis, despite the HBO NOW announcement yesterday:
The device, the physical hardware, has remained virtually unchanged for several years. The last revision changed some components but didn’t add any hardware features, and that was in January of 2013. Two years of … basically nothing happening….
The biggest news was, of course, that Apple is bringing HBO NOW (an over-the-top service, and shouty name) to the Apple TV. Oh, except it’s only getting that exclusive for 3 months… That is not a very long time. I’ve been around for several three-month periods so I feel pretty confident in making that assessment. That is approximately the current window of time between a movie being shown in theaters, and the movie being available to consumers in their home. Think back to the last movie you saw available for home purchase, you know, when you said, “I thought that was just in theaters.” That’s how short this window of exclusivity is. It’s not even as long as most video game exclusives for different game consoles which can typically last a year. Once the exclusivity is over with, will there be any differentiating factor between the Apple TV and the other devices that this is available on other than access to the iTunes Store?
The optimist in me says this is a sign of life for Apple TV, so maybe the actual update we’ve all been waiting for is just around the corner?
[Next-day note: Joe has written a good follow-up post about Apple TV rumors and more.]