Weekly Rewind
Apple TV’s struggles: The last year hasn’t been stellar for Apple TV. Sales were down in the previous holiday season compared to 2015, and market share has fallen to 11.9 percent as of January, down from 12.5 percent in September according to eMarketer. Instead of spending $150 to $200 on an Apple TV, people are opting for cheaper devices from Roku, Amazon, and Google that have the same or more capabilities.
This week, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has a deep dive into what went wrong with Apple’s TV plans. Known for his Apple scoops, Gurman also provides a couple more: A new Apple TV is coming with 4K and “more vivid colors,” which presumably means HDR support, and Apple is once again looking to negotiate a streaming TV bundle. (I don’t think it’s too late for Apple TV to redeem itself, but that’s a topic for another week.)
A box for your boxes: Would you pay $400 to make sense of all the devices in your living room? Caavo thinks some folks might. In June, the startup will offer a $400 box that consolidates video from up to eight devices into a unified interface. Instead of just switching inputs, it uses machine vision to pull in video from cable boxes, streaming devices, and game consoles. Caavo only expects to sell around 5000 units this year, and will use what it learns to launch a cheaper mass-market version with fewer HDMI inputs.
For now, the product doesn’t sound complete. Caavo tells The Verge that it can only support DVR from Dish and DirecTV, and would require direct partnerships to work with other cable providers. (Prevous input-unifying products such as the Xbox One and Google TV ran into the same issue.) And Caavo is still figuring out how to best present a single content option from multiple devices and services.
Still, the underlying machine vision tech sounds impressive. I wouldn’t be shocked if Caavo got acquired before its direct-to-consumer plans came to fruition.
More Catch-Up
|
