Here’s an amazing factoid: Netflix almost went head-to-head with the Apple TV in 2007, until they realized they were about to pick a fight they would surely lose.
Netflix alumni Barry Enderwick has just dropped a bombshell about the streaming video service’s hardware ambitions about a decade ago. According to Enderwick, Netflix realized that it’s business would evolve from DVDs to streaming in around 2004, and they started building a set-top box to bring Netflix to the living room.
By 2007, this box had been completed. It was called the Netflix Box, and it was an ordinary – and, I’d hazard, rather shoddily designed – set-top box that would allow customers to stream Netflix titles right to their television.
So far, so good. Except with a prototype box in their hands, Netflix all of a sudden got cold feet. They decided they’d be better off trying to get the Netflix app running on every smart TV, smart device, and set-top box out there, instead of trying to lock their service in to a piece of hardware.
To be fair, this was probably a smart move. Netflix is now ubiquitous, and runs on pretty much every device there is. That’s a market domination that would probably not have been as total if they wasted time for a few years, trying to market a dedicated hardware box against the likes of Apple.
But I also find the timing interesting. Netflix had the box built by 2007, then got cold feet. Meanwhile, the first-gen Apple TV debuted in early 2007. Coincidence? Somehow, I doubt it: Apple showed them that, when it came to hardware design, they had a product that couldn’t be beat. It was better to get Netflix running on the Apple TV than try to compere with it.
Intriguingly? Enderwick indicates that while the Netflix box died, it did eventually come to market, as the first-gen Roku player. Which, I don’t mind saying, I think is the Apple TV’s only real contender when it comes to functionality in the living room. Maybe Netflix was onto something after all.
