Word on the street is that Apple TV will gain Siri-powered “universal” search with a rumored new $149 model being unveiled next week. Which would be quite curious if they also deliver a more open app platform as, suddenly, Apple iTunes video could compete directly against the likes of Amazon and Vudu. Presumably, should both come to pass, Apple would be content to take a cut of app sales (as seen on mobile) to offset the video losses.
Of course, others like Roku and Fire TV, have long featured universal search, with TiVo leading the pack — as both live and upcoming television programming are indexed, along with the ability to create a OnePass playlist from disparate sources. Apple’s search functionality would gain additional utility should their rumored streaming TV service launch… with live programming and hopefully an on demand library.
“Which would be quite curious if they also deliver a more open app platform as, suddenly, Apple iTunes video could compete directly against the likes of Amazon and Vudu.”
I will eat my laptop if Amazon and Vudu ever show up on Apple TV.
The great majority of things in the life cannot be predicted. This is not one of them.
“Presumably, should both come to pass, Apple would be content to take a cut of app sales (as seen on mobile) to offset the video losses.”
Well, as not seen in mobile. Actually, it’s about ethics in Apple’s god-given 30% cut journalism. You can’t do commerce from the Amazon app on iOS, so Apple doesn’t receive a single penny from Amazon via the mobile app.
Wasn’t comparing 1:1. If they make money selling Angry Birds add-ons, maybe they figure that offsets any video losses. And if you subscribe to Spotify or similar from within the Apple TV, they’d obviously take a cut of that. Guess we’ll find out if a “real” app store is in the cards next week.
“Wasn’t comparing 1:1. If they make money selling Angry Birds add-ons, maybe they figure that offsets any video losses.”
Well, there will be games.
And there is going to some kind of massively moderated and limited app store that makes the iOS app store look like a totally unwalled garden.
But there won’t be Amazon or Vudu. There won’t be any video service that competes with Apple’s video service. Ever. Really. I wasn’t joking about eating my laptop. (Just as Apple-retailed video will never be available on any other box. Ever. Really.)
Hell, if they ever introduced a monthly subscription movie service, (different from their never-to-happen Apple TV subscription service), they’d kick Netflix off the box the next day.
Apple desperately wants to monopolize the space. They seek the Uber/Facebook ‘first-mover’ / ‘network effect’ thing that lets them get to a dominating market and/or profit share. That’s their only goal in the space; it’s not about just making some incremental profit. It’s why they are pushing so hard for the unworkable Apple TV service that will replace Input 1. They’re never going to get these things, but they’re like the mythical Japanese soldiers marooned on Pacific Islands in 1946, fighting on even though they’ve lost the war…
(In the halls of Cupertino, it’s always 2001, and every industry is the music industry.)
Tangentially speaking of Universal Search:
A semi-recent TiVo software update broke Kmttg’s most excellent streaming video search that I’d heavily relied upon. Unfortunately, moyekj couldn’t find an equivalent workaround, so his only possible fix was to use TiVo’s servers for the search, instead of using the box’s API’s for the search.
This means that Kmttg no longer has a way to filter the search by which streaming services you’ve indicated you subscribe to on the box, instead returning results for all streaming services. Better than nothing, but still a drag. Kmttg was a hundred times easier to use for the searching than using the Slide with the TiVo UI. Now it’s only ten times easier.
Down with TiVo Design! Margaret to the Gulag!
Universal search is great and all, but the killer app to me would be single sign-on to ALL my TV subscription necessary apps. It is incredibly tedious to have to go through verification for ESPN, Disney, Fox, FX, ABC, HBO, Showtime, etc. Some require you to go to a website, others make you install a mobile app. It’s a broken process in need of an Apple fix if I’ve ever seen one.
But you only need to verify once. After that the apps open right up.
I would be just as shocked as Chucky if Vudu or Amazon show up on the ATV. And I can’t imagine a way Apple could introduce an “App Store” without opening the door to that happening. Perhaps it’ll be a “game store,” just like an App Store, but with only games. Because outside of games, what other apps would actually make sense (that Apple doesn’t have already and that wouldn’t compete with the iTunes store).
Yeah, that’s kind of where I landed after more thought. A game store, plus whatever apps/services Apple negotiates directly like the selection currently available. We shall see… Will probably have to buy one no matter what it does or doesn’t do. :)
“Will probably have to buy one no matter what it does or doesn’t do. :)”
Complete list of gizmos and dinguses that Dave won’t buy…
@aaronwrt Unfortunately, my verifications break with some frequency forcing me to re-verify when I just want to watch something now. If Apple had a single verification system hopefully it would cut down on this problem.
Universal search is great, and a much needed feature for Apple TV, but universal browse (with filters) and universal queue (watch list) would really set it apart. So far, only TiVo has that, although its implementation/UI could be improved (as well as the streaming apps themselves on TiVo). I can see why the various streaming apps would fight against that though; it would essentially mean disintermediation by Apple, turning Netflix, Showtime, HBO, Crackle, etc. into “dumb” content pipes for the Apple TV UI. But then, in a way, they’re already halfway there given that Apple forces their own consistent UI across all of the streaming apps on the platform. (HBO and Showtime apps look nothing alike on a Roku; they look almost exactly alike on Apple TV.)
Intelligent and attractive aggregation of content across multiple streaming services is a problem waiting to be solved. If Apple is willing to act as a somewhat neutral/open platform rather than force their own content on users (I’m looking at you, Amazon Fire), I think they’re in the best position to make it happen.
Your cable company wants to let you know they already solved that 20 years ago… so long as you’re ok streaming over QAM. ;) Regarding Fire TV, I think I like it less now than I did at launch and Amazon won’t even let me resell it on Amazon.
“If Apple is willing to act as a somewhat neutral/open platform rather than force their own content on users … I think they’re in the best position to make it happen.”
Ha! Like I say, I’ll eat my laptop if Apple went content neutral.
“Your cable company wants to let you know they already solved that 20 years ago… so long as you’re ok streaming over QAM”
Right. But the supplement of OTT has shifted things. Which is why OnePass is such a BFD. My TiVo’s got a wonderful universal search / universal watchlist / top-level consistent interface that I love.
I do think Tim is correct that a universal search with a consistent interface across both multicast and OTT is the holy grail. And TiVo is selling that today, if you don’t mind the brief non-consistent interface when you go from OnePass into the OTT selection.
But Apple’s efforts to contrary, I continue to think they’re not the ones to pull this off, both because their refusal to get into the multicast, which I think will linger for longer than folks assume, and because of their Core Directive refusal to be neutral in their sources. TiVo is producing it now, but the MSO’s are potential candidates if they were to go neutral in the sources, which seems almost as unlikely as Apple.
So, aside from TiVo, I’m not sure who’ll pull off this trick before the multicast dies, which as I say, will take longer than the hype suggests…
Actually, I was just talking about a consistent UI and search/browse/queue only across streaming sources, never mind adding multicast into the mix. (TiVo may well always be the only serious contender in that arena.)
I don’t think Apple is as closed with the Apple TV as Chucky sees it. I mean, they offer access to a lot of streaming sources, both OTT and authenticated. Where they won’t allow any direct competition is in the streaming pay-per-view rental or purchase market, so no Vudu, MGo, Amazon Instant Video, etc. They want all rentals and purchases to go to their iTunes outlet. Fine — that’s not a huge deal to me as I don’t rent or purchase that often and it seems all of the services are pretty much interchangeable in terms of catalog, pricing and picture quality. (OK, MGo’s HD PQ is inferior but the others are pretty close.)
If Amazon were amenable to it, it wouldn’t surprise me if Apple allowed an Amazon Prime Instant Video app on Apple TV that would be solely for viewing Prime content. That’s really the only major subscription streaming service that Apple TV is missing and is surely a reason they lose some hardware sales to Roku, Amazon Fire and Chromecast.
If Apple TV were to gain that, and then provide universal search, browse and queue across all the major streaming sources without ONLY giving results from the iTunes Store or somehow requiring extra clicks to see non-iTunes content, then that would, in my opinion, be the ultimate single streaming box. As I mentioned before, it already has a consistent UI across the individual apps (something no other streamer has). I guess the question now, though, is whether Apple wants to continue encouraging users to stream from subscription services like Netflix, Hulu, etc. or do they see those services as competitors to whatever streaming service they plan to eventually launch…