Shop E Store Apple is launching a new home product strategy this year, with Apple Television reportedly being evaluated as a future product. Recent trends in the television industry reveal how much opportunity Apple has to disrupt the market with new products and better directions.
TV manufacturers prioritize features that allow them to capture more ad revenue and user data
This week’s CES offered a glimpse into TV manufacturers’ plans for the year ahead. And unfortunately, those plans reflect a focus on gimmicky software and AI features that offer little real value to users.
Sharon Harding writes: ars technica:
This trend reveals that TV brands are increasingly viewing their products as customer data rather than TVs, and as software companies rather than hardware companies. This points to an alarming future for smart TVs, where even premium models that demand top-end picture quality and hardware features are packed with undesirable gimmicks.
Harding’s full report details the examples she observed at CES. These include:
- LG changes the remote control to “AI remote control”, removes the input button, and selects a button to load the webOS dashboard. This makes sense given the company’s recent efforts to display more ads across webOS.
- TVs that add far-field microphones to support Google Gemini – ambiguous privacy implications and could later earn a cut of Google’s subscription revenue
- Samsung’s flawed AI tool that analyzes the food on your screen and serves up relevant recipes — coincidentally, the company has a new Instacart partnership for grocery orders
- LG and Samsung have both introduced Microsoft Copilot. This is a chatbot of seemingly little value on TV
If you want to feel discouraged about the prospects for future TV hardware, read the full story.
Apple TV offers plenty of opportunities to “think differently”
All in all, these “innovations” in the television field reveal the growing need for another player who can create quality products without gimmicks or violating privacy.
In other words, Apple Television really needs to happen.
I previously outlined five main reasons why Apple should absolutely make TVs.
This new CES report is easily number six.
Some might argue that modern Apple is also focused on services revenue and AI.
apple have It is true that service revenue is increasing. And we’re also very focused on AI at the moment.
But unlike these other companies, Apple has a solid understanding of how to make great products.
It’s about hardware, software, and services working together to create a compelling user experience.
Modern TVs have great hardware, but the experience is compromised by software and services.
My hope is that once Apple launches a TV, it can change the market by focusing on user privacy and thoughtfully integrating hardware, software, and services.
That’s probably a misplaced hope. But one thing’s for sure: The new TV trends announced at CES are alarming, and I want Apple Television now more than ever.
Would you buy an Apple TV? Do the latest TV trends just don’t bother you or is it a big deal? Let us know in the comments.
