Apple’s senior VP of software and services Eddy Cue clearly does not like the current state of TV. At Vanity Fair’s New Establishment Summit, in a conversation with HBO CEO Richard Plepler, Cue called TVs nothing more than glorified VCRs.
Pressing on the need to for TVs to be reinvented, Cue said, “You live with a glorified VCR. You’re still setting things to record. There are 900 channels, but there’s nothing to watch.” While Cue acknowledged that there was great stuff to watch, the TV interface is what was making it more difficult, specially when it came to finding content.
“The ways you interface with TV are pretty brain dead,” said Cue. Of course he maintained that Apple TV with its App Store and Siri provide a better solution. He mentioned the example of HBO Now, which has around 1 million subscribers on Apple devices. He said that HBO Now provides a better navigational experience than cable box or satellite.
Cue hinted that Apple and HBO were two companies that were ‘at the beginning’ of their relationship. He suggested that TV will continue to evolve over the years.
Talking on competition from rivals such as Amazon and Netflix, Cue said that Apple was in a very competitive position in both music and video streaming as it hosts these services on its own platform.
Apple isn’t getting all the love in the TV streaming arena from all the major players though, thanks to Cue’s hard nosed tactics. Time Warner, Disney are just some of the TV networks which aren’t bowing down to Apple’s demands.