<story><title>Apple receives permit in California to test self-driving cars</title><url>http://uk.reuters.com/article/us-apple-car-idUKKBN17G1CJ</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>old-gregg</author><text>During 2015-16 I was given 3 or 4 opportunities to get a free Chromecast, and I got one. It sits barely used now, in one of the rarely visited HDMI inputs on my TV. I wonder how many of those &amp;quot;sold&amp;quot; devices were actually given away and forgotten.&lt;p&gt;Chromecast cannot possibly be considered usable by most because it follows a weirdo, google-style, controlled-by-the-browser (but only Chrome) model. It is the most absurd way to watch TV ever invented. I use it sometimes, sure, because it&amp;#x27;s the only Linux-friendly HDMI dongle (Chrome runs on Linux), but can&amp;#x27;t imagine anyone actually liking it.&lt;p&gt;Apple TV, in comparison, is tightly integrated into every MacOS and iOS device, i.e. not only into the OS but often into the applications that run on them. And I don&amp;#x27;t remember anyone offering a free ATV to me... :)</text></item><item><author>datguacdoh</author><text>Articles like &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.recode.net&amp;#x2F;platform&amp;#x2F;amp&amp;#x2F;2016&amp;#x2F;6&amp;#x2F;10&amp;#x2F;11904942&amp;#x2F;google-chromecast-apple-tv-sales&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.recode.net&amp;#x2F;platform&amp;#x2F;amp&amp;#x2F;2016&amp;#x2F;6&amp;#x2F;10&amp;#x2F;11904942&amp;#x2F;google...&lt;/a&gt; seem to point to Apple TV being easily outsold by Amazon and Google.</text></item><item><author>abritinthebay</author><text>AppleTV a loser?&lt;p&gt;The only device significantly ahead of it in sales is the Roku  (Amazon and Google&amp;#x27;s sticks are ~the same number of sales as Apple TV).&lt;p&gt;But the market is pretty evenly split in sales and Apple still maintains one of the larger overall &lt;i&gt;install bases&lt;/i&gt; for any of them (not the outsized winner it used to be there though of course).&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Not being a de-facto monopoly&amp;quot; is hardly a loss.</text></item><item><author>11thEarlOfMar</author><text>In some markets, it is more about getting it right than getting in at the right time. We&amp;#x27;ve seen many carcasses of products that were ahead of their time, not because they were bad ideas but because they were not formulated for mass adoption. Apple&amp;#x27;s own Newton is one example. It took the iPhone formulation to make the product features successful in the market.&lt;p&gt;A more recent example is the telepresence robot. Many entries, but still more Newton than iPhone.&lt;p&gt;With Apple, it&amp;#x27;s easy to pick out their winners and losers: iPhone, iMac, MacBook, ... vs, Apple TV, Lisa, Newton, ....&lt;p&gt;At their current scale, Apple needs to enter really big markets in order to move the needle on sales and profits. There aren&amp;#x27;t many really big tech markets left. Cars are an interesting play in that it combines robotics and consumer tech, and puts them into a market that has room for multiple large players and plenty of opportunity for disruption. The transition to an electric drive train and autonomous navigation presents an entry point. There will be multiple winners.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>DoctorNick</author><text>&amp;gt;Chromecast cannot possibly be considered usable by most because it follows a weirdo, google-style, controlled-by-the-browser (but only Chrome) model. It is the most absurd way to watch TV ever invented. I use it sometimes, sure, because it&amp;#x27;s the only Linux-friendly HDMI dongle (Chrome runs on Linux), but can&amp;#x27;t imagine anyone actually liking it.&lt;p&gt;This only makes sense if you completely disregard the fact that almost all the major VOD providers (excepting Amazon Prime Video) provide Chromecast support in their Android and iOS apps. It&amp;#x27;s extremely convenient for me; open the app, cast to the TV, and select the video.</text></comment>
<story><title>Apple receives permit in California to test self-driving cars</title><url>http://uk.reuters.com/article/us-apple-car-idUKKBN17G1CJ</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>old-gregg</author><text>During 2015-16 I was given 3 or 4 opportunities to get a free Chromecast, and I got one. It sits barely used now, in one of the rarely visited HDMI inputs on my TV. I wonder how many of those &amp;quot;sold&amp;quot; devices were actually given away and forgotten.&lt;p&gt;Chromecast cannot possibly be considered usable by most because it follows a weirdo, google-style, controlled-by-the-browser (but only Chrome) model. It is the most absurd way to watch TV ever invented. I use it sometimes, sure, because it&amp;#x27;s the only Linux-friendly HDMI dongle (Chrome runs on Linux), but can&amp;#x27;t imagine anyone actually liking it.&lt;p&gt;Apple TV, in comparison, is tightly integrated into every MacOS and iOS device, i.e. not only into the OS but often into the applications that run on them. And I don&amp;#x27;t remember anyone offering a free ATV to me... :)</text></item><item><author>datguacdoh</author><text>Articles like &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.recode.net&amp;#x2F;platform&amp;#x2F;amp&amp;#x2F;2016&amp;#x2F;6&amp;#x2F;10&amp;#x2F;11904942&amp;#x2F;google-chromecast-apple-tv-sales&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.recode.net&amp;#x2F;platform&amp;#x2F;amp&amp;#x2F;2016&amp;#x2F;6&amp;#x2F;10&amp;#x2F;11904942&amp;#x2F;google...&lt;/a&gt; seem to point to Apple TV being easily outsold by Amazon and Google.</text></item><item><author>abritinthebay</author><text>AppleTV a loser?&lt;p&gt;The only device significantly ahead of it in sales is the Roku  (Amazon and Google&amp;#x27;s sticks are ~the same number of sales as Apple TV).&lt;p&gt;But the market is pretty evenly split in sales and Apple still maintains one of the larger overall &lt;i&gt;install bases&lt;/i&gt; for any of them (not the outsized winner it used to be there though of course).&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Not being a de-facto monopoly&amp;quot; is hardly a loss.</text></item><item><author>11thEarlOfMar</author><text>In some markets, it is more about getting it right than getting in at the right time. We&amp;#x27;ve seen many carcasses of products that were ahead of their time, not because they were bad ideas but because they were not formulated for mass adoption. Apple&amp;#x27;s own Newton is one example. It took the iPhone formulation to make the product features successful in the market.&lt;p&gt;A more recent example is the telepresence robot. Many entries, but still more Newton than iPhone.&lt;p&gt;With Apple, it&amp;#x27;s easy to pick out their winners and losers: iPhone, iMac, MacBook, ... vs, Apple TV, Lisa, Newton, ....&lt;p&gt;At their current scale, Apple needs to enter really big markets in order to move the needle on sales and profits. There aren&amp;#x27;t many really big tech markets left. Cars are an interesting play in that it combines robotics and consumer tech, and puts them into a market that has room for multiple large players and plenty of opportunity for disruption. The transition to an electric drive train and autonomous navigation presents an entry point. There will be multiple winners.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ghaff</author><text>I find Chromecast to be pretty much the perfect model for displaying content on TVs. Put the intelligence in the device, not the TV.&lt;p&gt;I wish that more tablet and phone apps supported it. But then I always have the browser fallback when they don&amp;#x27;t.&lt;p&gt;Apple TV is OK and I have one. But I prefer to display stuff the way I&amp;#x27;m already accustomed to doing so and then cast it to my TV when I want to.</text></comment>