Apple TV Price Cut Hints At Apps, Big Sales And More Content

Apple Inc. AAPL is often noted for referring to Apple TV, the company's first set-top box, as a hobby. Last week the company knocked $30 off the price to inspire more consumers to take up that "hobby." "I expect Apple TV apps are about to hit next," Cody Willard, chairman of Scutify (a financial social network), told Benzinga. "Full integration with your smartphone and tablet, whether it's mirroring or literally being able to pull up the tablet version of [the] Benzinga or Scutify [apps] on your TV. That's been a missing component. They need to get that solved sooner or later." Sean Udall, CIO of Quantum Trading Strategies and author of The TechStrat Report, didn't mind that Apple chose to drop the MSRP (manufacturer's suggested retail price) to $69 instead of releasing an entirely new unit. "I think the product is as powerful as it needs to be," Udall told Benzinga. "All it needs to be is like a Wi-Fi router, essentially."

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'Big Push'

Udall said that by "collapsing" the price of Apple TV, Apple is "crushing" its margins. "[Taking] $30 off a $100 product is a huge price cut," he said. "They are now going to make a big push to get Apple TV products into millions and millions of homes." Udall believes that Apple is now going to go after more content deals. Brett Golden, president and co-founder of The Chart Lab, has similar expectations. "I just think all they care about right now is content," Golden told Benzinga. "It's not about selling that hardware. Now they're starting to do content partnerships. That's what it's about."

Good For Apple, Bad For Others?

HBO Now is among the cord-cutting options that have been criticized for costing consumers more money than they might have paid for a cable bundle. That may be the least of HBO's concerns, however. To "get a pulse on the market," Golden likes to read the commentary in the threads on the New York Times, Business Insider and other websites. He said that many individuals have said they plan to subscribe to HBO Now for one month, binge watch a season of "Game of Thrones," and then cancel the service. Disclosure: At the time of this writing, Louis Bedigian had no position in the equities mentioned in this report.