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iSurrender: Apple partners with rival Samsung to bring iTunes to smart TVs
In a surprise move, Apple Inc. has partnered with rival Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. to have the South Korean electronics giant offer support for iTunes on its smart televisions.
Marking the first time support for the Apple ecosystem has been offered outside of the company’s own television products, iTunes Movies and TV Shows and Apple AirPlay 2 will debut on 2019 Samsung Smart TV models starting in the northern spring.
In another surprise, existing Samsung 2018 TV owners will also gain access to the Apple ecosystem via a firmware update. iTunes on Samsung TVs will be available in around 100 countries, the same countries that are currently able to access the service, with users of the TVs in 190 countries gaining access to AirPlay2 support.
If the iSurrender story isn’t weird enough yet, Apple has worked with Samsung to integrate iTunes with Samsung’s Smart TV services, including its Universal Guide and Bixby. The latter is Samsung’s rival to Apple’s Siri smart assistant.
“We pride ourselves on working with top industry leaders to deliver the widest range of content services to our Smart TV platform,” Won-Jin Lee, executive vice president of Samsung’s Service Business of Visual Display, said in a statement. “Bringing more content, value and open platform functionality to Samsung TV owners and Apple customers through iTunes and AirPlay is ideal for everyone.”
Although Apple hasn’t confirmed the move, the reason why is simple to guess. With declining sales and a plummeting share price, Apple is focusing on services as a growth opportunity. Though no longer a market leader, iTunes is still Apple’s most popular online service and spreading support to non-Apple devices is a way to grow its user base.
“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,” Peter Kafka wrote at Recode. He added that it trails Roku Inc., Google LLC and Amazon.com Inc. in streaming market share, and Apple needs to be on more devices if it is going to sell more services and stem slumping iPhone sales.
Image: Samsung
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