Samsung has said to be adding Apple’s AirPlay 2 software on its televisions.
Samsung Electronics Co Ltd recently announced to add an app to its smart televisions in the coming months to let owners watch content bought on Apple Inc.’s iTunes service. Possibly Apple is looking ahead to distribute its forthcoming television service on devices made by others.
Reportedly, this move is a part of an ongoing strategy shift for Apple, which is facing weak hardware sales in China and a saturated global smartphone market where users are hanging on to their old iPhones longer than ever, affecting its biggest business growth. As a result, Apple is increasingly leaning on its services segment, which includes businesses such as iCloud storage in addition to its music, television, and movie content businesses.
Moreover, Apple has declared several high-profile deals for original television content but has not yet notified about launch schedule or distribution strategies for that content service. Furthermore, the Samsung deal could be a step toward Apple distributing content to devices made by others. Apple makes a device called Apple TV that connects to a full television set but has never produced a full set itself.
Addition of an app on Samsung Televisions
Reportedly, in this deal, Samsung will add an app to its televisions that lets the user browse and play their existing iTunes movies and television shows as well as purchase or rent new content. Samsung also informed that it would add Apple’s AirPlay 2 software that will allow iPhone owners to stream content from their device to Samsung televisions.
The implicit financial details
As many existing deals between content companies and smart television makers involve the content firms paying television makers for the right to appear on their devices, Apple and Samsung both declined to comment on whether Apple is paying any fees or a percentage of sales made on the televisions under the new deal.
As per reports, films from Warner Bros, Walt Disney, Universal, Sony, and Fox purchased through iTunes, Amazon, Google Play and Vudu could be viewed on the respective apps and devices and TVs that support the apps.
The Samsung deal is the second time in recent months in which Apple has made a pact with another technology company to land its services on their devices. In November 2018, it said its Apple Music streaming service would be made available on Amazon’s Echo smart speakers, despite Apple selling its own line of HomePod speakers that compete directly with Echo speakers.
