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Cue: The current TV experience “sucks,” billion-dollar Apple TV business will get bigger this year

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Speaking at Code Conference Wednesday night, Apple’s head of online services Eddy Cue took a swipe at the current state of television and presented his take on where the future of that industry lies. According to Cue, Apple TV sales have risen in recent years and over 20 million of the set-top box have been sold to date. Cue says that the device is billion-dollar business now and is expected to continue growing.

However, the Apple TV isn’t a true TV replacement. Cue took a few moments to point out just how much using TV “sucks” and bemoan the current range of DVR devices. He even went so far as to compare current technology with the VCRs of a bygone era—and he’s not wrong. Cue cited drawbacks such as having to remember to set a recording or trying to manage storage on the recorder as reasons on-demand streaming through the Apple TV is growing in popularity.

That’s not to say he’s especially fond of today’s on-demand systems either, though. Not only did Cue have sharp criticisms for modern recording tech, he even jabbed at the streaming experience on the iPad, noting that the process of authenticating with a cable provider to access streaming content is less-than-ideal. So what’s his solution?


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iTunes Festival kicks off at Austin SXSW with Coldplay and more, Apple execs in the crowd

Apple kicked off its iTunes Festival event at SXSW tonight with Apple execs Phil Schiller and Eddy Cue in the crowd. Tonight’s show will feature performances by Coldplay, Imagine Dragons, and London Grammar. The entire event is being live-streamed on a dedicated Vevo page and Apple TV channel.

The five-night event will also have performances by Kendrick Lamar, Pitbull, Keith Urban, and more. You can view the full lineup and more in the free iTunes Festival app, which launched last week.

Schiller and Cue both tweeted photos from the Imagine Dragons concert:

[tweet https://twitter.com/pschiller/status/443568910860701697 align=’center’]

[tweet https://twitter.com/cue/status/443569400159825920 align=’center’]

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