Apple TVRelated: Apple dumped its plans to come out with its own smart TV set a year ago, the Wall Street Journal reports. It's focusing instead on a streaming video service, and improving the existing Apple TV, last updated in 2012.
Re: Cost benefitThe problem is, if you've looked at the new 4K options, nobody actually sells a dumb TV anymore. Which is unfortunate, since that's all I want. I don't want to pay for "smart" internals that will be obsolete in a year when I can just swap out a rotating crop of $30 to $99 Roku and Chromecast players that work much better than these internal TV components.
I feel like the first operator willing to sell a truly high quality "dumb" TV would make up in sales what they'd lose in padded costs for the set.
Cost benefitConsumers are more likely to replace an inexpensive add-on to their TV, such as a Chrome USB stick or Roku puck, rather than a TV costing hundreds of dollars or more.
However, the UI is so primitive that we never use it. What we used is either phones or tablets apps and link them to the PS/3. That is a MUCH better UI. Wish more services would do that (I am looking at you Netflix).
I do agree that the UI is still the biggest gap, but that will be over very soon.
The SoCs and software to make it smart are increasingly cheaper.
Also there is no comparison to using netflix on a smarttv. Since you can just turn on one device and put the movie you want with the remote.
You don't have to fiddle with multiple devices and UIs. It is mom/dad friendly enough.
I don't know the princing in the US. But there is virtually zero difference in pricing on a dumb or smart tv here where I live.
Just think that soon the computing power on those TVs may exceed many computers from the recent past. A lot of boxes may become redundant.
I feel like the first operator willing to sell a truly high quality "dumb" TV would make up in sales what they'd lose in padded costs for the set.
We stream Youtube onto our TV using our PS/3.
However, the UI is so primitive that we never use it. What we used is either phones or tablets apps and link them to the PS/3. That is a MUCH better UI. Wish more services would do that (I am looking at you Netflix).
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