My main complaint is that there isn’t a consistent experience between apps. Things are in different places, actions do different things in different apps, no gesture support, subpar players with horrible scrubbing, etc.
I think all apps should be held to a few basic UI/UX standards so going from one app to another isn’t a completely different experience.
The attached photo is just one example. Within the Apple TV app itself, long pressing an icon brings up this great menu allowing you to go straight to the show or the episode page. Long pressing in most other apps removes the show from your now playing list! All of these conflicting actions need to be rectified.
As a streaming device, the Apple TV has a relatively low market share. Even Apple is bringing its TV app to more and more other devices / platforms. Weakening their own position by making their own streaming device kind of redundant. And I think if they would enforce those things, some apps would just vanish from Apple TV.
On the other hand many available apps somtimes even feel kind of “left behind” compared to other platforms. And I’ve heard several times now that developers can’t just use the same cross-platform code base on ATV as on other devices. And I think that might be the reason for the state of apps like Spotify or Netflix. So if Apple can’t enforce a unified look & feel, maybe it would be even better if they would put some effort in making tvOS more developer friendly. In a way that developers can more easily use the same code base on ATV than on other devices.
Please correct me if I’m wrong about this, but doesn’t the AppleTV+ available app on 3rd party devices only let users stream content from the AppleTV+ subscription service? Or does it work like the Prime Video app in that it also lets you view content from additional services provided that the user has subscribed to those additional services specifically via the appleTV app itself?
Because I’ve been under the impression that the AppleTV+ app that’s currently available on Roku boxes, smart TVs, game consoles, etc. only allows users to watch AppleTV+ content. And if that’s right, then making the AppleTV+ app available on Roku boxes does not weaken Apple’s position in the streaming device market (just like how being able to watch Prime Video content on an AppleTV box in addition to an Amazon Fire Stick does not weaken Amazon’s position in the streaming device market).
Although regardless of me being right or wrong about the above, one thing that certainly is weakening Apple’s position in the streaming device market is their bone-headed decision to give their box (AppleTV) and streaming service (AppleTV+) nearly identical names. It has created so much confusion in the marketplace. It’s even created confusion in this subreddit which on paper is supposed to be devoted to the box itself, but often seems tons of submissions about AppleTV+ content which can be viewed on numerous streaming devices.
The TV app available on non-Apple devices lets you view content from their TV+ subscription service and your content purchased on iTunes. And I think that’s the crucial point here: Before they started to spread their TV app, you needed an Apple TV to watch your iTunes library on your TV. But now with the app available on so many other devices, they made the Apple TV evitable for using their own services. So this might even strengthen their position as a content provider, but I think on the other hand it also weakens the position of the Apple TV as a hardware device. And I think in this regard they gave away their leverage in forcing UI/UX standards on other app providers. Because I think it won’t hurt them much not to be present on Apple TV if this would mean time and cost intensive extra work to conform with Apple’s UI/UX standards.
They’re only around 4% of the market. But that’s still plenty enough given the entire market’s size I’d seriously doubt content providers would ignore that four percent. It takes a lot to gain and keep subscribers. Putting those at risk due to some additional development costs would be business lunacy.