Why should I buy an Apple TV ($ AAPL) instead of Amazon Fire, Google Chromecast?

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This week: The Apple TV box has lost its raison d’être as content moves to more devices, why Apple doesn’t (yet) require its employees to get vaccinated, and how Google is trying to save its Pixel phone franchise .

Starters

Apple Inc. started selling an Apple TV with a faster processor and a cool new remote in April. But neither the upgrade nor the previous set-top features justify spending $ 199 on such a device in 2021.

When Apple introduced the Apple TV in 2007, the reason to buy one was clear: the box could store TV shows and movie files, and pull media from the owner’s Mac to the big screen. The next version in 2010 had its own unique place: it was a $ 99 cloud streaming device for watching Netflix, downloading video rentals from iTunes and AirPlay media from iPhone. or an iPad. Even the 2015 model had its raison d’être: the App Store.

But in recent years, Apple TV has become a less obvious purchase for many Apple fans and content junkies. The app ecosystem is a flop, aside from big names like Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube and casual casual gaming. The box costs, in some cases, more than double what its competitors sell.

More importantly, buying an Apple TV no longer gives users a content advantage. We’re in the age of streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Hulu, and business models have changed so every service is available on every device: phones, tablets, TVs, streaming sticks, and game consoles.

Apple, known for its closed ecosystem, is even embracing the shift by offering many services on competitor smart TVs and boxes. These services include iTunes movie and TV rentals, the Apple TV app, Apple TV +, Apple Music, and AirPlay. Of course, this was intentional on the part of Apple, which looked for new sources of revenue when iPhone sales slowed around 2018.

This has made Apple TV a mostly useless accessory, and consumers seem to agree: 2020 data from Strategy Analytics revealed that Apple TV has 2% of the streaming device market.

The product is not without benefits for the most loyal users of the Apple ecosystem, however. Integration with HomeKit, Fitness +, AirPods, and the iOS remote app is helpful. This year’s release’s new remote and faster chip are definite improvements, and the box will get SharePlay and Spatial Audio support later this year. Still, I don’t see these improvements moving the needle for most people.

One idea for keeping Apple TV relevant would be to bundle an Apple TV + subscription indefinitely at no additional cost.

TV + started slowly. Bernstein’s analysis puts Apple TV + in revenue at $ 2.2 billion in 2021, compared to Netflix’s $ 25 billion last year. Apple’s initial content library was incredibly limited, and Covid-19 hit just months after launch, delaying new shows and filming of second seasons for up to two years.

But the tide may be turning: new content is coming; awards and nominations pile up; and, for the record, some shows like Schmigadoon! seem to be gaining fans.

If Apple really wants to be efficient, it could simply lower the price of its box, make a cheap “stick” version with 4K, or add features that are really worth it. But for now, it’s hard to believe that will happen anytime soon, especially with Apple engineers telling me the company doesn’t have a solid hardware strategy for the living room and there isn’t a lot of internal optimism.

Apple TV was an unusually rocky Apple product from the start. Remember when Steve Jobs often called it a hobby? Apple TV’s software has undergone more interface redesigns than any other Apple product, and despite nearly 15 years of attempts, Apple hasn’t created anything close to a market leader.

Again, Apple seems to recognize this and is developing a combined Apple TV, HomePod and FaceTime device for release around 2023. Will this release finally improve Apple’s offering in the living room? Only time will tell. But if the next big redesign doesn’t go well, it might be time for Apple to consider putting Apple TV on the same shelf as other living room products like the HiFi iPod and the top HomePod. range.

The bench

Apple remains one of the few big tech companies that doesn’t require vaccines. Google, Microsoft Corp., Netflix, Uber Technologies Inc. and many others in the tech industry have announced that they will require staff to be vaccinated against Covid-19 before returning to the office. Apple has so far not followed suit, raising questions as to why.

While I think Apple will likely establish the same mandate eventually, vaccines have become politicized. Apple has major offices in the Blue and Red states, and requiring company-level vaccinations would quickly become complicated. For example, in Florida, where Governor Ron DeSantis signed a law banning companies from taxing vaccines, Apple has several engineering and corporate offices in addition to 18 retail stores.

Apple aimed to get all of its staff back to the office by September, before recently delaying the plan until October at the earliest. My hunch is that Apple will institute another delay around February as Covid cases continue to rise.

Apple has championed its new child safety features. Apple last week announced three new features to combat the spread of explicit and abusive images of children: new technology to analyze photos in a user’s iCloud Photo Library, new search capabilities in Siri, and the ability to analyze photos sent to and from a child’s device for explicit material. Of the three, the first has become controversial among some privacy experts and even among Apple employees. Apple on Friday defended the features, saying they are not a backdoor and are not designed for governments to spy on citizens.

Google is trying to save the Pixel with its own chip. It’s sort of ironic that after five years Google’s flagship Android hardware offering hasn’t really made a big dent. With the Pixel 6, Google is doing everything to try and change that.

I recently held the upcoming Pixel flagship phone for a brief period, and was impressed with its build quality, new array of cameras, and some of the newer tech like an in-screen fingerprint reader and artificial intelligence improvements in photos and voice recognition. . But Google’s most touted upgrade is the new Tensor chip.

Google doesn’t share any specifications or performance metrics, and it’s hard to believe that the company will be able to successfully compete with Apple or Qualcomm Inc. with its first-generation component. It’s no secret that the slowdown in sales of Pixel phones in recent years has caused Googlers to fear the future of the company’s hardware unit, but the four-year investment in a custom processor could prevent these worries. Still, I don’t think a chip will change Google’s position much, at least in the short term. And if the Pixel finally turns around, it might be too late.

Apple continues to push Buy Now, Pay Later. The great ambition of Buy Now, Pay Later is to launch a service within the framework of Apple Pay that will allow users to share the cost of all buy in installments. But until then, Apple is making it easier to share the cost of its own products.