I agree that this is disappointingly unimaginative.
Unless you mean you're going to make my Netflix another channel just like Fox News, which would be pretty nice. But that differs in the fact that Netflix is a video focused application that acts a lot like a channel or something. But that means you had better add a unified UI for video playback. Netflix and YouTube and everything should share the same UI widgets.
I think that's a big part of it. The distinct between "channels" and "apps" is artificial. On my Roku, most of the "channels" can be interacted with in at least some way, making it difficult to draw a line.
Most channels on Roku are offering on-demand features, and you interact with the channel to locate a feature. The Weather Underground channel has controls allowing search for locations, and viewing maps and radar. Some really big things, like Tablo, include features for programming recording; and Plex is pretty much everything but the kitchen sink.
I think if they saw that the apps/channels distinction is artificial, the rest of the design would collapse into a bunch of irrelevancies, and they'd be forced to confront the question for real.
Unless you mean you're going to make my Netflix another channel just like Fox News, which would be pretty nice. But that differs in the fact that Netflix is a video focused application that acts a lot like a channel or something. But that means you had better add a unified UI for video playback. Netflix and YouTube and everything should share the same UI widgets.
I think that's a big part of it. The distinct between "channels" and "apps" is artificial. On my Roku, most of the "channels" can be interacted with in at least some way, making it difficult to draw a line.
Most channels on Roku are offering on-demand features, and you interact with the channel to locate a feature. The Weather Underground channel has controls allowing search for locations, and viewing maps and radar. Some really big things, like Tablo, include features for programming recording; and Plex is pretty much everything but the kitchen sink.
I think if they saw that the apps/channels distinction is artificial, the rest of the design would collapse into a bunch of irrelevancies, and they'd be forced to confront the question for real.