Apple's Slice of Medical Industry, Apple TV Hardware and Competition, with John Martellaro - ACM 507

Apple says that it wants a tiny sliver of the ginormous medical industry, and Bryan Chaffin is joined by guest-cohost John Martellaro to discuss what that might look like. They also discuss Apple TV hardware, what Apple’s new TV+ announcement might mean for its hardware business, and the state of Apple TV’s competition.

Sign up for 4 Months of DirecTV Now, Get a Free 4K Apple TV

DirecTV Now is offering customers a free 4K Apple TV when you prepay for four months of service.

4K Apple TV (32 GB): Ends 4/30/2019. New sub’s only. Must prepay first four months of service at full price. Requires minimum $50/mo. subscription before taxes. Device and prepayment are nonrefundable. New subscribers only. Online orders will be shipped via FedEx ground to address provided. Allow 1-2 weeks for delivery. Offer limited to 1 per DIRECTV NOW account; 2 per shipping address. Not combinable with select offers. 4k HD not avail. w/DIRECTV NOW.

TV's Role in Apple's Services Strategy

The announcement yesterday that Samsung TVs will get a new iTunes Movies and TV Shows apps is a big deal. As is the news that Samsung, VIZIO, Sony, and LG are going to integrate AirPlay 2 into their TV offerings. I made that case on TMO Daily Observations on Monday. Pete Kafka at Re/Code has a really incisive piece of analysis looking at the fallout of the Samsung announcement. He lays out how Apple is moving into becoming a services company, or at least how it is making its services business more important, and how TV is part of this strategy.

The obvious and accurate takeaway is that Apple has conceded that Apple TV, the device that was supposed to help it own the living room, isn’t succeeding — it trails Roku, Google and Amazon in streaming market share — and that Apple needs to be on more devices if it is going to sell more services — which is its plan to combat slumping iPhone sales.

Apple TV 4K Features HDMI 2.0a. But HDMI 2.1 is Coming

4K/UHD TV is now mainstream.  But new 8K TVs are coming. CNET writes: “The current version of the ubiquitous HDMI [2.0] audio video connection can handle pretty much every video format available today, but with 8K on the horizon, TV and other hardware makers could hit its limits in the next few years. That’s where HDMI 2.1 comes in.”

This article fills you in on the new standard, what video protocols it supports, which TV makers are moving to it in 2019, and whether you’ll need new cables.