Apple TV 4K Costs Half of My New TV. In Japan, That's a Hard Sell.

A ¥49,800 box next to a ¥100,000 television, and a smart home lineup built for houses many Japanese households don't live in.

I recently replaced both of my TVs after 16 years of use. One of them is a 65-inch Regza, and it cost ¥100,000. On October 13, Apple announced the fourth-generation Apple TV 4K at ¥49,800 including tax, or $299 in the US. It goes on sale November 13.

That is half the price of the TV I just bought, for a box that does what the TV already does. Current smart TVs generally have Netflix, YouTube, Prime Video and the rest built in. The Apple TV has a better interface and a stronger privacy record, and I would pay something for both. Half the cost of a 65-inch television is a lot to pay for them.

The price is not a Japan markup. Strip out the 10 percent consumption tax and ¥49,800 is about ¥45,300, which comes to roughly $286 at the current rate of about ¥158 to the dollar. That is slightly below the US price of $299, which excludes sales tax. The issue is how large the number is in yen. Most of the climb came earlier. The outgoing 128GB model sold in Japan for ¥23,800 until a June price increase took it to ¥44,800, and the new model adds another ¥5,000 on top of that.

The HomePod pairing makes it worse. The new Apple TV can drive four HomePod minis or HomePods for a surround setup. HomePod mini 2 is ¥24,800 each, so four cost ¥99,200, and the full setup with the Apple TV comes to ¥149,000. Two speakers for stereo plus the Apple TV already total about ¥99,400, which is the price of my television. An entry-level Denon soundbar costs under ¥30,000 and plugs into the TV I already own.

The smart home side of the announcement does not fit Japan either, and Apple has announced no Japan availability. The Apple Home Collection, announced the same day, includes a wired video doorbell, cameras, a deadbolt and two thermostats. The doorbell and cameras are listed for the US, Canada and the UK. The lock and thermostats are US and Canada only. HomeView, the new 7-inch smart display, has no announced Japan release.

The housing numbers show why. In the 2023 Housing and Land Survey, 44.9 percent of dwellings in Japan were apartments, a record. Many of those units have an intercom wired into the building's entrance system, which a tenant usually cannot change. Amazon shows what it takes to serve this market. In April it launched the Ring Doorphone Pro exclusively in Japan, at ¥54,900. It is built to replace an existing intercom using standard Japanese two-wire cabling, and installation requires a licensed electrician. That is a product designed around how Japanese homes are wired, and Apple's wired doorbell has no Japan version. In the US, a homeowner can replace a doorbell in an afternoon.

Lighting has a similar problem. The standard smart bulb pitch assumes a screw-in socket where the light lives. In many Japanese homes the main light is a ceiling fixture that twists into a hikkake ceiling receptacle (引掛シーリング), most commonly the round type, and replacing a bulb is not an option because the LED is part of the fixture. I have four SwitchBot ceiling lights at home, which are built for that fixture, and they have their own catch. They only respond while the wall switch is on, so anyone who flips it off by habit loses app and voice control until it is switched back on.

SwitchBot has built its position around these constraints. An estimate by 家電Biz, cited in SwitchBot's own press release, puts it first in smart plugs, remotes, locks and curtain openers in Japan in 2025. Most of those products attach to what a renter already has, without drilling or rewiring. I would expect that kind of product to keep winning in a market where nearly half of homes are apartments.

Apple's smart home pitch works well for a homeowner with a standard light socket, a doorbell they can replace, and a budget for a second device. Many Japanese households lack at least one of those three. I am not buying an Apple TV for my new television, and I expect most Japanese buyers will make the same call at ¥49,800.