Deals: Apple TV Drops to Record Low of $129.99 as iPad Mini and Apple Pencil 2 Match All-Time Lows

With all new smart 4k TVs supporting both Apple TV+ and airplay 2 I don't see the reason apple TV is still being sold.

Because AppleTV+ is only ONE app. That would be like saying, with AppleTV+ app (or any single app of your choosing) on many things, I don't see why iPhone is still being sold. Obviously iPhone does a whole lot more than any one app available on iPhone.

Airplay 2 works from Macs too. So I don't see why iPhone and iPads are still being sold.
Or if iPhone is central to your life, I don't see why Macs and iPads are still being sold.
Or if iPad is central to your life, I don't see why iPhone and Macs are still being sold.

As soon as you offer a bit of differentiation rationale to justify any of those, the same generally applies to AppleTV. It's much more than only one app that can run on it and/or only an airplay receiver from something else.

Can someone get by without it? Of course. They can also get by without Macs, iPhone or iPad. The latter two will easily substitute for each other- I actually use iPad mini cellular with buds as my phone (too)- no iPhone. But I also have several Macs- all of which can pretty much do exactly the same stuff as the others, so why have more than one? It's much more convenient to pack a Mac laptop when traveling etc. It's much more powerful to work on Studio Ultra when at home... and it's a full-time computer for others when I happen to be away from home.

I also have several AppleTVs. I could readily hook a Mac or iPad mini to a TV to get a lot of the same benefits but prefer to let AppleTV do that job in a permanent, full-time way vs. only when I happen to be at home (with Mini) or only when I can free up the Mac from using it for whatever else I do with it.

Incidentally, I use my AppleTV every day but I haven't used the AppleTV+ app more than a few times since it was released... pretty much solely if I want to watch Apple events. I will do a bit of airplay to it sometimes but that would also rank very far down the list of my uses. If both were eliminated as AppleTV offerings, I pretty much wouldn't miss them at all... and still use AppleTV pretty much every day.

With all new smart 4k TVs supporting both Apple TV+ and airplay 2 I don't see the reason apple TV is still being sold.

The amount of telemetry smart TVs collect is insane, I’d much rather keep my TV a dumb panel and keep the brains that have internet access in a different box. Also I’d rather just have to worry about things like panel quality when picking a TV than also having to matrix that with what smarts it comes with. Also I keep TVs for a while, being able to upgrade what I’m using for smart functions separately from the panel is nice

And the AppleTV is butter smooth to use, probably the best streaming box experience around. And it acts as a homekit hub too

So there’s a few reasons

Apple TV with at least A14, 128 GB and the ability to download movies/series to watch them offline and we have a deal.

Arcade isn't worth much at all.

Apple TV is still being sold because its probably going to have a better experience than whatever underpowered processor is in the TV.

BTW, the button for the ipad mini is mislabeled as 64gb apple tv for $399

Excellent price for the cheapest model, but that 64GB tier has got to go. If you want more storage than that, the $130 jump to 256GB throws the whole value proposition out of whack. Which is why I haven't bought one of these yet.

Fitness+
Arcade

Because AppleTV+ is only ONE app. That would be like saying, With AppleTV+ app (or any single app of your choosing) on many things, I don't see why iPhone is still being sold. Obviously iPhone does a whole lot more than any one app available on iPhone.

Airplay 2 works from Macs too. So I don't see why iPhone and iPads are still being sold.
Or if iPhone is central to your life, I don't see why Macs and iPads are still being sold.
Or if iPad is central to your life, I don't see why iPhone and Macs are still being sold.

As soon as you offer a bit of differentiation rationale to justify any of those, the same generally applies to AppleTV. It's much more than only one app that can run on it and/or only an airplay receiver from something else.

Can someone get by without it? Of course. They can also get by without Macs, iPhone or iPad. The latter two will easily substitute for each other- I actually use iPad mini cellular with buds as my phone (too)- no iPhone. But I also have several Macs- all of which can pretty much do exactly the same stuff as the others, so why have more than one? It's much more convenient to pack a Mac laptop when traveling etc. It's much more powerful to work on Studio Ultra when at home... and it's a full-time computer for others when I happen to be away from home.

I also have several AppleTVs. I could readily hook a Mac or iPad mini to a TV to get a lot of the same benefits but prefer to let AppleTV do that job in a permanent, full-time way vs. only when I happen to be at home (with Mini) or only when I can free up the Mac from using it for whatever else I do with it.

Incidentally, I use my AppleTV every day but I haven't used the AppleTV+ app more than a few times since it was released... pretty much solely if I want to watch Apple events. I will do a bit of airplay to it sometimes but that would also rank very far down the list of my uses. If both were eliminated as AppleTV offerings, I pretty much wouldn't miss them at all... and still use AppleTV pretty much every day.

Can it act as a HomeKit hub? I thought only the Apple TV and HomePod(s) could now?

because some people don't want to use their TV's OS.

Maybe it's slow. maybe it's annoying. Maybe is just isn't as good as ATV. Maybe people like using the ATV OS. Maybe people don't want to buy a new tv just to upgrade their TVOS. Maybe ATV provides features the tv doesn't. The list goes on.

Because a lot of people don’t want to us the smart TV option and Apple TV works much better.

The amount of telemetry smart TVs collect is insane, I’d much rather keep my TV a dumb panel and keep the brains that have internet access in a different box. Also I’d rather just have to worry about things like panel quality when picking a TV than also having to matrix that with what smarts it comes with. Also I keep TVs for a while, being able to upgrade what I’m using for smart functions separately from the panel is nice

And the AppleTV is butter smooth to use, probably the best streaming box experience around. And it acts as a homekit hub too

So there’s a few reasons

Apple TV is more than an app. It’s the experience and the Apple TV interface is better than all the others out there

I get your arguments. Your are right in a lot of those. Still you have to accept that apple tv is not as useful for many average joe users, as it was 10 years ago for example. For example since I picked up a sony google tv with many apps and airplay, my apple tv has been collecting dust.