published<\/a>\u00a0in recent days, Apple said it\u2019s looking for someone to lead the development of \u201cfun new features\u201d and \u201chelp build an application used by millions to watch and discover TV and sports.\u201d<\/p>\nA spokesman for Apple declined to comment.<\/p>\n
The move suggests that the company is looking to gain market share in video streaming \u2014 and is setting aside its rivalry with Android in order to chase additional users.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s rare for Apple to develop software for Google\u2019s Android, which competes with its iOS platform.<\/p>\n
The TV+ service, launched in 2019, is Apple\u2019s answer to Netflix or Disney+, and the company has\u00a0spent heavily\u00a0on feeding it with original content.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s hard to tell how many consumers have embraced the offering.<\/p>\n
Though the company\u00a0scored a best picture win\u00a0at the Oscars in 2022, Apple has never disclosed how many subscribers the service has or how much revenue it generates.<\/p>\n
Android would provide a big source of potential viewers.<\/p>\n
Though Apple dominates the market for high-end smartphones, Android has more users globally.<\/p>\n
The operating system powers more than 3 billion devices around the world. Apple has roughly 2.2 billion active devices, with the majority of those being iPhones.<\/p>\n
Apple has long sought to put TV+ on as many platforms as possible and already offers apps for smart TVs, Roku, Amazon streaming devices and game consoles \u2014 but it\u00a0shunned an Android app\u00a0when TV+ launched.<\/p>\n
While Apple offers its music streaming service on Android, it has declined to release apps like FaceTime and iMessage on the operating system.<\/p>\n
The concern within the company is that putting a popular feature like iMessage on Android will threaten iPhone sales.<\/p>\n
Though Apple launched a web version of FaceTime a few years ago, it stopped short of creating a dedicated Android app.<\/p>\n
TV+ isn\u2019t a total stranger to Android, though. Apple has offered the service on Google Chromecast streaming devices and many smart televisions \u2014 with the Apple TV app running on the Android operating system.<\/p>\n
However, the new job listing suggests the company is now planning something more extensive, telling applicants they will \u201cdesign and architect a sophisticated application.\u201d<\/p>\n
The move is the latest sign that Apple\u2019s attitude may be changing.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, it launched standalone versions of Music, TV and device-management apps for Windows. More broadly, the company is relying more heavily on services for revenue growth, rather than just devices.<\/p>\n
Like its streaming peers, Apple also has raised the price of its TV+ service.<\/p>\n
Last year, it bumped the rate to $9.99 a month (R124.99 in South Africa) \u2014 twice the level when TV+ launched five years ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Apple is seeking a senior engineer to help build a television and sports app for Android, a sign the company is finally bringing its TV+ service to the rival smartphone platform.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341034,"featured_media":539035,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[397,605,2638,167],"class_list":["post-539033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-software","tag-android","tag-apple","tag-apple-tv","tag-google"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539033"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341034"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/539035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}