The new Apple TV app is a huge disappointment
Apple has been making rather questionable decisions lately. One was choosing to go with the so-called touch bar on its new MacBook Pro instead of a fully functioning touchscreen display. Now this new app for its Apple TV, which is supposedly designed to keep users updated with all the programs being watched across other platforms, is seemingly pointless.
The main problem with the Apple TV’s new app is that it does not include a couple of the biggest video streaming providers out there: Amazon Video and Netflix. It is only proper to point out, though, that Amazon was never enlisted on Apple TV’s index of apps. After all, Amazon has its own Fire TV and its accompanying stick.
Netflix, on the other hand, is another story. Apple has no valid reason not to include the most popular streaming service in the world on its new app. It’s easy to say that Netflix cracks the top of the app charts on Apple TV. And although people would still be able to watch Netflix shows on their Apple TVs, they would only be able to do so through the common Netflix app instead of the new TV app. As Gizmodo points out, this basically means that the new TV app is useless as it will leave out a huge number of shows from people’s favourites lists, discarding shows from both Netflix and Amazon Video.
Another drawback is that the TV app requires users to subscribe to a number of separate services in order to fully utilise its streaming capabilities. It’s not really convenient for users to sign up for bundles of services before they can stream them. This isn’t exactly the kind of diversification that is expected of Apple.
Apple indeed took a reductive approach on its new Apple TV app. The service is utterly depleted without Amazon Video and Netflix. This is a huge letdown by a company that was once the gold standard of innovation.