A lot of apps that came with my TV from Samsung have been removed over the years as they stopped supporting them. For example Skype. So I paid for a TV with Skype, now it has no more Skype.
Almost all of the apps stopped working long ago, and the manufacturer doesn't even push out updates anymore, but somehow the Vudu app keeps trucking along. They still use it as they prefer the built-in Vudu app to the Vudu app offered on their Xbox One.
I suppose props are in order to Vudu for supporting something so long after even the manufacturer has given up on it.
Most of the creative new ways to getting your digital copies started with them like Disc to Digital and Instawatch. Others have dabbled in it, but Vudu really made these things happen and they've continued to be the biggest in these spaces, though Best Buy has recently dabbled with giving out digital codes for preorders in advance of physical releases.
And on the front of digital ownership, they've continued to support issuing UltraViolet rights on every single title they're allowed to do so by the studios, and seem to plan to continue to until the last possible moment (Whereas Fandango voluntarily dropped it for all MA-eligible titles pretty quickly) and were immediate to grab into Movies Anywhere as well. Most digital copy codes for titles that aren't UV or MA are also redeemable on Vudu.
In the buying digital video space, they've really stood out as the safest best to ensure your purchase or digital copy will be available on any device more or less in perpetuity, and that makes them my default for it in the world where video still hasn't won good DRM-free options like music and ebooks have started to.
It’s not Samsung’s fault if a third party pulls their app.
The way I see it, if they used the availability of an app as a direct selling point, that makes them somewhat liable to it's continued functionality. If they didn't secure that contractually or with some level of assurance, they should not have advertised it.
1: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/media-resources/truth-advert...
Samsung may have reserved the right to modify the software, but I've literally seen smart tvs from Samsung that have a "Netflix" button on the physical remote.
They have shipped tv boxes that clearly and prominently display the Netflix app on the tv.
If the Netflix button on the remote no longer works, the tv is not doing what the user bought it to do and what it was advertised as being capable of.
But that's the point. Who is going to go to court with Samsung over a $1500 TV?
We don't actually own the devices we buy anymore. It's ... pathetic, but true.