Thus my (?) after "hundreds/thousands" of dollars. Ok, "thousands" was a gross exaggeration so let's stick to the comparison of a $49 Roku device vs. either the 128GB or 64GB version of the Apple TV device.
I think my question's valid: what makes the Apple device superior to something like the Roku or Western Digital devices that also stream content? As with any product launch in which one wants consumers to choose their brand vs. the competitors there has to be a distinguishing characteristic or feature set that the Apple device has that other devices (Roku, Western Digital, Sling, others..) do not have.
I'm just curious to know what the difference is. If it delivers features & functionality that I like, but do not have in my Roku device I'd consider switching.
It really is just that simple.
< And yes, you're right on the Steve Jobs quote.
When I was at the Ad Agency, we often joked that our creative media people (the creative heads that did the art work, conceptual work, etc..) lost their "edge" once they asked for Mac devices to do their work on rather than pencils and sketch paper to do the conceptual work.
I'd give anything to be a fly on the wall in those creative meetings today when the "Pencil" was introduced. I'd bet dollars to donuts that purchase requests for the Apple "Pencil" were flying left and right there today.
It actually does add quite a bit of functionality for Apple product users. . . and it is planned to be the hub of the connected home for Apple products in the future. As such, the price is quite reasonable. Those other devices are essentially just streaming video devices with no further function. For the major differences between the Roku 3 and the new Apple TV, I refer you to my reply 31 in this thread.
There have been so many anti-Apple hate Brigade members throwing spit wads of misinformation and trying to obfuscate what these new Apple products can actually do by comparing them to older, already on the market competition that do far less, instead of actually even looking at what Apple has publicly stated their new products ARE capable of doing. I point out the repeated efforts to denigrate Apple's new Apple Pencil, by continually calling it a stylus and ignoring what it actually can do, despite being told repeatedly the actual facts, which they repeatedly ignore.