Apple to revolutionise TV. Inside look at why it hasn’t
EARLIER this month, Apple poached the chief of Amazon’s Fire TV unit to run its television operations. Timothy D. Twerdhal brings hardware and content experience to his new gig, and his hiring suggests a renewed focus on the Apple TV set-top box.
Twerdhal’s arrival comes as the company tests a new, fifthgeneration Apple TV that it may release as soon as this year. Internally codenamed “J105,” the new box will be capable of streaming ultra-high- definition 4K and more vivid colours, according to people familiar with the plans.
The features will probably boost Apple TV sales as consumers increasingly upgrade to 4K television sets, but those enhancements alone probably aren’t enough to turn the gadget into a ground-breaking, iPhone- caliber product. Time and again, the people say, Apple engineers have been forced to compromise on Apple’s vision of revolutionising the living room.
Early on, the Apple TV was going to replace the clunky set-top boxes from the cable companies and stream live television. It never happened. The team debated bundling a gaming controller with the current model to better compete with Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox and Sony Corp.’s PlayStation. That didn’t happen either. Originally, viewers were going to be able to shout commands from the couch to the Apple TV. Instead they must talk to the remote control.
Apple has essentially settled for turning the television set into a giant iPhone: A cluster of apps with a store. “That’s not what I signed up for,” says one of the people, who requested anonymity to talk freely about internal company matters. “I signed up for revolutionary. We got evolutionary.” Gene Munster, who covered Apple for more than a decade as a Piper Jaffray analyst and now runs Loup Ventures, echoes the criticism. “Apple TV begs the question: Why does Apple do hobbies?” he says.
“Either do it right or don’t do it at all.”
Apple doesn’t disclose how many Apple TVs it sells, but Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri acknowledged in a recent interview that sales decreased year- over-year from the 2015 holiday season to this past 2016 holiday period.