Apple TV is suddenly alive and well. After Monday’s Apple Watch event, the company’s oft-ignored set-top box, which we ranked far below the Roku in terms of quality and value, may now be one of the best streaming devices you can buy.
Why the change? Two things: exclusive access to HBO’s new HBO Now subscription service and a significant price drop.
Prior
to Apple’s announcement on Monday, Apple TV hadn’t received much love
from its makers in Cupertino. Sure, the streaming box has been doing
well in terms of sales, with roughly 25 million units sold since its
debut in March 2012, but it has yet to see a redesign of any kind
outside of some improved specs, and it is generally regarded as inferior
to the competing box from Roku.
In
fact, until yesterday, we considered Apple TV to be an also-ran behind
both the $49 Roku Streaming Stick and the $99 Roku 3, both of which
offer a terrific library of apps and an easy-to-search interface.
Amazon’s
Fire TV and Fire TV Stick are both excellent streaming options, as
well, and at $99 and $39, respectively, they are about the same price as
Roku’s offerings, albeit with fewer available apps.
With
Apple’s announcement that it would be HBO’s exclusive launch partner
for the cable giant’s new HBO Now streaming service, though, the company
put its competitors on notice.
True,
HBO Now will cost you $14.99 per month, but it gives you complete
access to the company’s content without requiring you to have a separate
cable subscription.
There’s
a catch, though. Apple’s HBO Now exclusivity window lasts just three
months. Don’t think that the company agreed to launch the service in
April arbitrarily, though. That’s exactly when the new season of Game of Thrones begins, which means that both Apple and HBO are hoping to benefit from the show’s enormous popularity.
After that three-month period, however, HBO Now will begin working its way over to competing streaming services. If you’re a Game of Thrones obsessive, though –– and are allergic to spoilers –– you might have to toss down some dollars for Apple TV.
Putting
the HBO Now factor aside, Apple TV’s new price is still very
attractive. At $69, Apple TV is less expensive than Roku 3, Amazon Fire
TV, and Google’s Nexus Player, each of which usually costs $99 (the Roku
is currently on sale for $79).
Apple TV is suddenly alive and well. After Monday’s Apple Watch event, the company’s oft-ignored set-top box, which we ranked far below the Roku in terms of quality and value, may now be one of the best streaming devices you can buy.
Why the change? Two things: exclusive access to HBO’s new HBO Now subscription service and a significant price drop.
Prior
to Apple’s announcement on Monday, Apple TV hadn’t received much love
from its makers in Cupertino. Sure, the streaming box has been doing
well in terms of sales, with roughly 25 million units sold since its
debut in March 2012, but it has yet to see a redesign of any kind
outside of some improved specs, and it is generally regarded as inferior
to the competing box from Roku.
In
fact, until yesterday, we considered Apple TV to be an also-ran behind
both the $49 Roku Streaming Stick and the $99 Roku 3, both of which
offer a terrific library of apps and an easy-to-search interface.
Amazon’s
Fire TV and Fire TV Stick are both excellent streaming options, as
well, and at $99 and $39, respectively, they are about the same price as
Roku’s offerings, albeit with fewer available apps.
With
Apple’s announcement that it would be HBO’s exclusive launch partner
for the cable giant’s new HBO Now streaming service, though, the company
put its competitors on notice.
True,
HBO Now will cost you $14.99 per month, but it gives you complete
access to the company’s content without requiring you to have a separate
cable subscription.
There’s
a catch, though. Apple’s HBO Now exclusivity window lasts just three
months. Don’t think that the company agreed to launch the service in
April arbitrarily, though. That’s exactly when the new season of Game of Thrones begins, which means that both Apple and HBO are hoping to benefit from the show’s enormous popularity.
After that three-month period, however, HBO Now will begin working its way over to competing streaming services. If you’re a Game of Thrones obsessive, though –– and are allergic to spoilers –– you might have to toss down some dollars for Apple TV.
Putting
the HBO Now factor aside, Apple TV’s new price is still very
attractive. At $69, Apple TV is less expensive than Roku 3, Amazon Fire
TV, and Google’s Nexus Player, each of which usually costs $99 (the Roku
is currently on sale for $79).
Roku’s
Streaming Stick, Amazon’s Fire TV Stick, and Google Chromecast,
however, are all less expensive than the Apple TV, costing $49, $39, and
$35, respectively.
True,
Apple TV’s processor is slower than those of the Roku 3, Fire TV, and
Nexus Player, but plenty of TV watchers would be willing to put up with a
streaming box that is a bit slower when navigating through app menus
for a lower price. And given that Apple TV is now $30 cheaper than those
devices, it makes sense that the processing power would be a little
lower.
As
it stands, the Roku Streaming Stick is still my streaming device of
choice due to its low price and massive app library. Roku has the
largest library of apps of any streaming gadget maker, though many of
them are genuinely strange, as well as a great Universal Search feature
that lets you search across different services for the movie or TV show
you want to watch.
That
said, I’m certainly more likely to consider buying Apple TV following
Apple’s announcements this week, which is something I wasn’t the least
bit interested in doing just a few weeks ago. For those of you with tons
of Apple devices and loads of content on iTunes, the time –– and price
–– might be right for you too.
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