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Comment by kitsunesoba | Hacker News Reader

> They're already trying to control the UX with the TV app and are offering companies better rev share rates to do the integration work.

To be fair, that’s not the only reason the TV app was created. Most notably:

– Users want a single place to keep track of all the shows they’re following across all services. Streaming services weren’t coming up with a cooperative solution for this, so Apple did it instead.

– Plainly put, a large chunk (if not most) streaming service apps suck. The TV app adds value by letting users skip the choppy, inconsistent, badly organized, lowest-bidder browsing UIs so many streaming service apps have and get straight to watching this week’s episode.

I like the TV app and wish it did more. I wouldn’t be bothered if I never had to open a service-specific app again. All I need is a clean, frustration free way to browse the libraries of the services I subscribe to.

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On the other hand, Apple controlling the UI means, as usual, they kill other services ability to innovate.

But most apple users don't care to have very limited capabilities as long as the core value is here and it's streamlined in the apple experience. Hell, they used a phone without copy/paste for a long time and it didn't bother them.

If you think other media streaming companies can "innovate" with their interfaces, you're not a cable cutter (I refuse to say cord cutter, my home internet still comes over a cord) who subscribes to Netflix, Hulu, and Directv.

Netflix's interface is horrible on both the Apple TV 4 and modern Rokus. It has a much better interface on the 3rd generation AppleTV where "apps" were limited to just for, all intents and purposed, glorified web apps. They were all running on top of WebKit using a combination of JavaScript and Apple's markup language.

Glorified webapps can't pre-download 50 go of tv shows for my next holidays in the deep country sides. You need file system access for that.

What exactly are you responding to?

I'm responding to the post about "innovation" of apps that not possible if everything goes through the TV app as a central launching pad for videos.

Companies aren't innovating anymore, though. We've reached the point where we have dominant players controlling the field, and any "innovation" we see has to do only with profit margins.

I think whether the new apps are innovating is irrelevant. Apple's making the decision for them. As a company, they've always kept things locked down, so I'm not surprised.

Plenty of ad and dark pattern innovation to do yet :)

Maybe the "smartphone" format is played out for now. New innovation may need to come from a new or emerging industry.

Following price and size trends, the next industry would be making a device ~1/50th the size of a "smartphone". Something like the size of a large SD card, probably.

People are trying all kinds of innovations around streaming video apps, you are just aware of them. I am no expert, but off the top of my head I can think of people trying to create streaming subscription services for horror movies, for esports, for anime.. I'm sure most will fail, but who could have predicted Twitch ten years ago?

On the other hand I don’t understand how Apple approved the Amazon Prim and YouTube Apple TV apps. The UX are horrible and I would rather not use them.

edit: added Apple TV

> Users want a single place to keep track of all the shows they’re following across all services.

Isn't that the problem Trakt [0] solves?

[0] https://trakt.tv/

> Users want a single place to

Imho, we've got to solve that "single place" problem, because it creates a winner-takes-all situation. Not just with apps, but also taxi-cabs, food-delivery, etc. Perhaps a government should step in and say that you can have a "single place" but only if you don't abuse your power.

It's not something you can solve. People want single apps because having to switch across multiple services and multiple accounts (and pay multiple $$$) and remembering what shows are on what services is a piss poor user experience.

Yes, that's why the "platform economy" might need government intervention. A "single place" or "platform", is too detrimental to the economy to ignore as a construct. One reason is that the company behind the platform will now start regulating the market, which is arguably worse than the government regulating it.

For some more insights and viewpoints, see:

http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/newsroom/image/docum...

Isn't government the quintessential "single place" or "platform" problem?

I guess you can answer that by considering this question: what do you prefer, a government regulating your market, or a company?

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