The reason is Apple is not in the streaming business, it’s in the hardware business and sales business.
Apple is not trying to get you to just join it’s streaming service. It’s trying to get you to buy it’s hardware so you’re in it’s ecosystem so it gets 1/3 of everything you spend on content and services. It’s the ultimate route in upselling.
You buy an Apple TV device, you watch some of their shows but also you buy some apps, and you sign up for other services (who have to pay apple for access), maybe you buy content through iTunes.
Apple wants you using Apple TV, and get an IPhone and a Mac and tablet etc. If you’re not on an Apple device they don’t want you because you’re able to spend money elsewhere.
Apples whole business is vendor lock-in. They just lock you in a gilded cage so you don’t realise you’re a prisoner. And they make you pay for the gilding.
$20bn is nothing in the scale of Apples ecosystem.
Long-time Ars reader/subscriber here. They’re a pretty source for English language tech news. I am particularly fond of their reporting on tech adjacent public policy issues (US centrism notwithstanding).
One area where they are weak is taking a critical look at Apple. They keep promoting the notion that Apple is somehow different.
They did report on Apple’s censorship of steaming content on AI (due to the upcoming release of Apple intelligence) and critiques of the CCP, but beyond the initial reporting it’s like nothing happened.
They all use Apple products, nothing wrong with that they have excellent products, but you would think that a tech news site would have at least one or two journalists who use Windows/Android/Linux full time.
It’s almost as if they need a “hero company” in their lives and can’t deal with the notion that all these tech megacorps are the same; sketchy, dishonest and corrupt.
To be fair as someone with no Apple products I’m always on the other side. As a result I’m usually extra critical of them.
Apple makes fine products. They haven’t made one I want to use, but they’re fine. I have plenty of complaints about Android as well.
I think reviewing tech products/software is difficult, especially from a neutral angle. It’s easy to fall into a side or want a “hero” product. Especially when, I’m sure Apple TV users are big fans of their product. I’m sure the designers made a good product. I bet I would even enjoy using their product.
But do I want to spend $120 on a new physical device plus subscription just to watch Severance? I already have a device that can watch everything else (Chromecast Ultra). Oh I need to buy a new version of the device I already have because that one supports apps like Apple TV and I’ll still be able to watch all my apps the way I do today but for Apple TV I’ll have to use the remote.
Somewhere in there the company who makes the product I am using also fucked up. I guess I should have bought a Roku. (I won’t go into that.)
As you said these mega corps can make good products. But sometimes they do be sketchy.
I like the article I’m just disappointed they missed, to me, such an obvious angle.
I have no issues with them even bring fans of Apple products and giving glowing reviews that may not appeal to my sensibilities.
Just he intellectually independent and honest. Don’t be suckers.
All the journalists at Ars exclusively use Apple products outside of work assignments. The notion of not wanting vendor lock-in, needing flexibility and wanting intense price competition is not part of their MO.
They are more and more in the cloud data subscription business instead, utilizing their closed ecosystem and then using the data for their own advertising side hustle like google (though at least they don’t sell the data to the lowest bidder like google)
I don’t know if many people have switched to an iPhone recently, but my mother did.
An iPhone gives you 1 GB of iCloud storage “free” and automatically force-enables icloud backup for everything on the phone like photos, videos, contacts, etc… So that it is immediately full and then gives you almost constant big warnings and reminders that you will lose all of your data and there is a problem with your phone unless you pay 5€ per month to upgrade your iCloud storage.
It is a royal pain to use a different backup service instead.
Apple also artificially caps storage on their phones and laptops (256GB on their 1100€ macbook air model in 2024? 512 GB on their 2000€ macbook pro model??) And push iCloud and iCloud plus hard, just like Microsoft is doing with their horrible OneDrive decisions and baking in “One drive save” as default in all of their apps.
The reason is Apple is not in the streaming business, it’s in the hardware business and sales business.
Apple is not trying to get you to just join it’s streaming service. It’s trying to get you to buy it’s hardware so you’re in it’s ecosystem so it gets 1/3 of everything you spend on content and services. It’s the ultimate route in upselling.
You buy an Apple TV device, you watch some of their shows but also you buy some apps, and you sign up for other services (who have to pay apple for access), maybe you buy content through iTunes.
Apple wants you using Apple TV, and get an IPhone and a Mac and tablet etc. If you’re not on an Apple device they don’t want you because you’re able to spend money elsewhere.
Apples whole business is vendor lock-in. They just lock you in a gilded cage so you don’t realise you’re a prisoner. And they make you pay for the gilding.
$20bn is nothing in the scale of Apples ecosystem.
I think you’re 100% correct. I’m bothered by the article dancing around this by using the word “marketing”.
I wish the article pushed back against Apple and pointed out their obviously missing flaw, even if it’s part of their strategy.
Long-time Ars reader/subscriber here. They’re a pretty source for English language tech news. I am particularly fond of their reporting on tech adjacent public policy issues (US centrism notwithstanding).
One area where they are weak is taking a critical look at Apple. They keep promoting the notion that Apple is somehow different.
They did report on Apple’s censorship of steaming content on AI (due to the upcoming release of Apple intelligence) and critiques of the CCP, but beyond the initial reporting it’s like nothing happened.
They all use Apple products, nothing wrong with that they have excellent products, but you would think that a tech news site would have at least one or two journalists who use Windows/Android/Linux full time.
It’s almost as if they need a “hero company” in their lives and can’t deal with the notion that all these tech megacorps are the same; sketchy, dishonest and corrupt.
To be fair as someone with no Apple products I’m always on the other side. As a result I’m usually extra critical of them.
Apple makes fine products. They haven’t made one I want to use, but they’re fine. I have plenty of complaints about Android as well.
I think reviewing tech products/software is difficult, especially from a neutral angle. It’s easy to fall into a side or want a “hero” product. Especially when, I’m sure Apple TV users are big fans of their product. I’m sure the designers made a good product. I bet I would even enjoy using their product.
But do I want to spend $120 on a new physical device plus subscription just to watch Severance? I already have a device that can watch everything else (Chromecast Ultra). Oh I need to buy a new version of the device I already have because that one supports apps like Apple TV and I’ll still be able to watch all my apps the way I do today but for Apple TV I’ll have to use the remote.
Somewhere in there the company who makes the product I am using also fucked up. I guess I should have bought a Roku. (I won’t go into that.)
As you said these mega corps can make good products. But sometimes they do be sketchy.
I like the article I’m just disappointed they missed, to me, such an obvious angle.
I have no issues with them even bring fans of Apple products and giving glowing reviews that may not appeal to my sensibilities.
Just he intellectually independent and honest. Don’t be suckers.
All the journalists at Ars exclusively use Apple products outside of work assignments. The notion of not wanting vendor lock-in, needing flexibility and wanting intense price competition is not part of their MO.
They are more and more in the cloud data subscription business instead, utilizing their closed ecosystem and then using the data for their own advertising side hustle like google (though at least they don’t sell the data to the lowest bidder like google)
I don’t know if many people have switched to an iPhone recently, but my mother did.
An iPhone gives you 1 GB of iCloud storage “free” and automatically force-enables icloud backup for everything on the phone like photos, videos, contacts, etc… So that it is immediately full and then gives you almost constant big warnings and reminders that you will lose all of your data and there is a problem with your phone unless you pay 5€ per month to upgrade your iCloud storage.
It is a royal pain to use a different backup service instead.
Apple also artificially caps storage on their phones and laptops (256GB on their 1100€ macbook air model in 2024? 512 GB on their 2000€ macbook pro model??) And push iCloud and iCloud plus hard, just like Microsoft is doing with their horrible OneDrive decisions and baking in “One drive save” as default in all of their apps.