Netflix CEO says Apple Vision Pro market is too insignificant to bother with

Netflix

Apple Vision Pro has been deemed irrelevant to Netflix users according to the company's CEO, but "we'll see where things go."

Netflix is among several high profile apps not available as apps on Apple Vision Pro. Others include YouTube and Spotify.

The Netflix CEO Greg Peters was asked about this decision during an interview held by Stratechery, and his reply was expected. Simply, Apple Vision Pro is too small a market and wouldn't yield a return for the effort.

"We have to be careful about making sure that we're not investing in places that are not really yielding a return, and I would say we'll see where things go with Vision Pro," Peters responded. "Certainly we're always in discussions with Apple to try and figure that out but right now, the device is so subscale that it's not really particularly relevant to most of our members."

Apple could change the calculus for Netflix given some incentive, and the Netflix CEO says that route is possible.

"We've worked together for a long time, we've always had active discussions to how we could help each other out," Peters said about incentives. "Sometimes we find a great space of overlap."

It is estimated that about 180,000 Apple Vision Pro pre-orders were made during the first weekend it was available. That pales in comparison to the millions of smartphones, consoles, and TVs on the market.

Apple's market share will grow and customer demand could push Netflix to creating a dedicated app. Until then, the Netflix app works within the Safari browser on Apple Vision Pro.

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42 Comments

BB92647

said about 3 months ago

…Ok Balmer

Xed

said about 3 months ago

You mean, currently nonexistent because it hasn't officially shipped to consumers yet?

cpsro

said about 3 months ago

Netflix was bothered enough to opt out of allowing its iPad app to run on the VP, which is the default. This is how Netflix "innovates".

thrang

said about 3 months ago

He's superficially correct - but he seems to be missing (purposely or not) the relatively meaningless cost to be an early-marquee app for their longer term benefit, and shorter term marketing attention.

Also probably not interested in "helping" a streaming competitor, but why give up eyeballs (literal, marketing, and news cycle) for no reason?

Disney was smarter here.

dewme

said about 3 months ago

Apple and Vision Pro proponents should not get their skivvies in a twist based on this article's headline. There's a little bit of chum in the water with the "insignificant" part - which does not appear anywhere in the quoted text.

What is relevant and is actually in the quoted text is:

"We have to be careful about making sure that we're not investing in places that are not really yielding a return, and I would say we'll see where things go with Vision Pro," Peters responded. "Certainly we're always in discussions with Apple to try and figure that out but right now, the device is so subscale that it's not really particularly relevant to most of our members."

Apple could change the calculus for Netflix given some incentive, and the Netflix CEO says that route is possible.

"We've worked together for a long time, we've always had active discussions to how we could help each other out," Peters said about incentives. "Sometimes we find a great space of overlap."

Good CEOs make sound business decisions based on available data, including the size and growth rate of the target market. While a lot of the early hands-on reviews of the Vision Pro so far describe it as a stunning piece of kit, how it fares in the longer term has a lot of unknowns and unanswered questions, especially around the development of compelling native apps and how many other buyers are going to jump onboard beyond the first wave of early adopters, especially when user face-on feedback starts flowing.

The Netflix CEO is pretty much at the same place that many of us are at with Vision Pro - "we'll see where things go" which means we will wait and see. I'm waiting too. The big difference is we're all waiting because there is about $4K of our hard earned cash on the line and we don't really know for sure how this thing will fit into our lives other than the gee-whiz and oh-wow factor. I guarantee that Netflix's bet on the Vision Pro today would be a tiny bit more than $4K. If Vision Pro takes off I have no doubt that Tim's phone will be ringing and the caller ID will say "Greg Peters."

This response from Netflix is nothing like Steve Balmer's pointed dismissiveness concerning the iPhone and its perceived lack future potential or Michael Dell's suggestion for the disposition of Apple he put out around the time of Steve Jobs' return to the helm.

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