Jason Snell on Yesterday’s Announcements

Great take from Jason Snell on yesterday. Here’s a bit from his notes on Apple TV:

Most exciting is unshackling developers who, even when granted access to the old Apple TV, were stuck fitting services into a very simple Apple TV interface template. Now that the Apple TV runs apps, that consistency is out the window. A few years ago I was blown away by the version of MLB At Bat for the PS3, but on Apple TV its interface was vanilla. On stage today, we saw the same kind of creativity in MLB at Bat for Apple TV that we saw on MLB at Bat for consoles ages ago. Other media companies — Netflix, Hulu, maybe even Amazon Instant Video — can create their own experiences in their own apps. I think it’s great news.

I agree with Apple that the future of TV is apps. But I think some people could misunderstand that. It’s not about the fact that there will be lots of apps (but there will be lots of apps). It’s about the fact that there are apps at all.

On the current Apple TV, some people call the current root-level offerings “apps”. But they’re not really apps. You could just as easily call them “channels”. They’re just different ways to get video streaming onto your screen.

Go back and look at the MLB At Bat demo from yesterday’s keynote. That’s an app.

★ Thursday, 10 September 2015