Apple has rebranded its streaming service “Apple TV+” as simply “Apple TV”, dropping the plus. We can assume that they did this because the market is already flooded with various “plus”es—Disney+, ESPN+, Discovery+, and so on. Or maybe they took a page out of a certain government’s strategy book of renaming things to make headlines and thought it was a good idea. I guess we’ll never know.
But what we do know is that in this quest for a “vibrant” rebranding, Apple has now ended up with three different products named the same, leading to a whole lot of confusion and mistaken identities—a scene straight out of a Shakespearean comedy.
To make it easy for you to understand: the streaming service, formerly known as Apple TV+, is now “Apple TV”. The Apple TV app, which lives on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, smart TV is also called “Apple TV”. And finally, the Apple TV hardware, that is, the set-top box you plug into your television is also called you-know-what. Great job Apple, this is not confusing at all—you gave all three of them an identity crisis! Wait, is this the plot of Humshakals come alive? What do you know—as it turns out—art does imitate life.
So now, when someone says, “Watch it on Apple TV,” you’ll need a follow-up conversation, and possibly a diagram to figure out what they are talking about. This is how I imagine that conversation would unfold—
“Do you mean the Apple TV app on my iPhone?”
“No, on your Apple TV.”
“The box?”
“No, the service!”
“You mean Apple TV+?”
“No, that’s gone now.”
Apple set out to remove one little plus sign and has somehow ended up writing the script for a Priyadarshan movie. Personally, I’d watch that movie—on the Apple TV, on my Apple TV, which is on my Apple TV. Good luck figuring out which is which!
