Apple canceled a potential cash cow to keep its reputation, now it might be reconsidering

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Apple TV box and remote
Apple has a reputation for producing “premium” products with sleek designs and closed off ecosystems. But sometimes the obsession with this design philosophy may just lose the company money. Bloomberg’s Apple insider Mark Gurman says Apple’s marketing team dismissed the idea of a TV stick years ago, opting for the more expensive Apple TV box.

Gurman also believes the company might now be reconsidering, though there’s no way to prove that for certain. A TV stick would definitely be an Apple product worth considering, in my opinion.

For comparison, the Apple TV starts at $129. Yeah, it looks pretty slick, but a lot of that cost is due to the more premium form factor. Not to mention that the A15 processor, loads of RAM, Siri compatibility and access to games from Apple Arcade adds to the cost. As Gurman points out, content subscriptions win over box hardware.

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The Apple Vision Pro is another example of cost over practicality for the sake of that premium factor. | Video credit — Apple

At the aforementioned price, the Apple TV is certainly one of the cheapest products the company offers. But for a simple streaming solution, you can definitely go lower. And that’s where Apple disagreed according to Gurman. The company wanted to keep that wow factor its products are often known for, and thought that a TV stick would be a very cheap looking offering.

I guess Apple thought a stick wouldn’t have the same room presence as a small box. But then again, it kept selling the iPhone SE that looks like a phone from a previous generation. It’s only now that we’re potentially looking at a modern revamp of the iPhone SE, which should sell like hot cakes in my opinion.

As I mentioned above, this is the same approach Apple took with the Vision Pro. And the company really needs to dial back the “high quality” for the Vision Pro 2 if it plans on netting itself a significant user base in the Mixed Reality industry.

Same goes for Apple TV. The company is potentially losing out on billions in revenue.
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