“On the eve of WWDC 2012, speculation swirls around Apple’s positioning as a television manufacturer, and how Apple TV might play into a greater television hardware strategy,” Christina Bonnington reports for Wired. “Indeed, an Apple TV reboot could be a game changer. And it would also be the WWDC highlight for users of the set-top puck, for app developers, and even for the TV entertainment industry at large.”
“The streaming TV companion still offers vast untapped potential. And with the attendance of thousands of devoted developers, WWDC is the perfect venue to announce a new Apple TV platform that exposes API support.,” Bonnington reports. “And we can’t forget how Tim Cook recently said the TV space is ‘an area of intense interest’ for Apple.”
Bonnington reports, “Apple just needs to address a few key areas before Apple TV becomes a really big deal… Apple could open up the Apple TV platform to third-party app developers: It could allow devs to create dedicated TV apps, or it could more heavily leverage (and open up) the AirPlay feature already baked into Apple TV to port existing iPad apps to the big screen.”
Read more in the full article here.
No way. It was just updated what, 3-4 months back. No doubt it’ll come, but not yet.
Give it a rest, will you. Apple TV is nothing more than a hobby and sells on minuscule number of units.
True, but aside from that product, Apple is intensely interested in the “TV space”. That portends something new and wonderful. Also, there is no industry more deserving of being violently disrupted than the television industry. And finally, every single MDN poster wants to see the cable companies bitch-slapped.
All of your statements are true and indisputable. But here’s the thing, no one is making money selling television sets. I don’t for a moment think that a couple of functional differences in the form of a better controller and content delivery is going to cut it.
The bottom line is, despite a desire being present, no one besides a small group of hardcore fans will pay $2,000 for a TV, when there are other less expensive, equally good LCD TVs from other world class manufacturers, Panasonic being one of them.
This article is not about an Apple TV set, it’s about the little box that they are already out in the market. It’s about how it’s got untapped potential that can be unleashed to allow a la cart programing. Nobody is talking here about a $2000 dollar TV.
But your profitability argument is flawed.
No one makes a fraction of the profits Apple makes in computers, phones and tablets. A TV set will be no different.
Check B&O and Loewe prices for meh TVs. If Apple make a TV, it will fly and at a realistic premium too (ahem, at least in comparison to B&O etc) and it will make a handsome profit.
You’re still going to pay a lot of money to watch content. Apple is not doing anything to save you money. And that’s as it should be, they’re in business to make money. Are you going to bitch slap Apple? Stop acting like a childish fanboy. Whatever AAPL comes up with won’t be cheap. Hopefully it will be good.
That “miniscule number of units” still has them leading the market, if I recall correctly.
——RM
Leading? In what?
There was an article on MDN that showed the Apple TV leading the “connected set top box” market, which includes the Roku.
——RM
2.5 million in one quarter isn’t minuscule.
are you telling me to give it a rest?
A – I’ve never said a word on it before,
B – of course a newer Apple TV will come one day in the future, and likely one day support some level of Apps.
Your comment seems strangely out of place.
If Apple TV is coming within the next 6 months or year though cluing in developers now would seem to make sense. Apple will then be able to hit the ground running with this thing as hapless copiers like ShamelessStung look helpless vanishing in the rear view mirror (objects are smaller than they appear). Still all this conjecture mere days before WWDC is kinda pointless and mere hit bait.
One thing I would like is the remote app to be upgraded. The mimic of the remote controls, and itunes-esque interface are nice, but I would like to have the tv screen duplicated on the iPad/iPhone/iPod so I can just touch the option I want like for like.
+1
Me too
“Intense interest” sounds like more than a “hobby”.
Less expensive TVs usually are NOT “equally good”. Standard LCD TVs may be an acceptable compromise, but they often are not equal to plasma or other new technologies. That said, I’ve seen poor plasma TVs too.
But generally, you get what you pay for.
If an HDTV is $500 less than a competing product, the competitor likely has compromised component performance and reduced picture quality somewhere to acieve the reduce cost.
Doesn’t sound that exciting to me. Apps to my Apple TV? Well, ok but c’mon it’s not revolutionary. There must be something bigger coming.
This is just a guess, but what if the “Apps” are HBO, Cinemax, Time Warner Cable, Comcast, Disk network, etc??? This could potentially be huge. The cable companies can suddenly expand beyond their territories, and consumers can choose between different providers, thus creating a real competitive market.
Making Apple TV into a platform for more developers can potentially be huge. Look what it did for the iPhone.
Maybe. But somehow we’re still going to pay the same amount of money. It will just be accessed differently than the way it’s done today. It just isn’t going to be cheaper. So in the end if it’s not cheaper just different,who cares? So it’s accessed through my Apple TV? So? I still see the same movie or other content. No, I can’t see any upside as a viewer and consumer of media content. Perhaps there’s something “revolutionary” coming? Really? Me doubts it. But I hope so. After all is said and done,or on this site gushed about, only the price will matter. And I’m betting that price will not go down. However,and there’s always a however in life, since I’m an investor for many years in AAPL I do hope that it at least sells like hot cakes. That will make me very happy.
Apple has gotten so lazy with development of AppleTV. Compared to the Roku XDS, AppleTV is downright crippled. Why bother to put a USB port on it if you can’t use it. Omitting Hulu Plus is a crime. If Apple can revolutionize the TV industry by investing such little effort, I’ll really be surprised.
Hulu plus sucks. Get an Apple tv 2 and get it jailbroken. Add XBMC and then add bluecop which includes hulu, amazon and a few others. this is ALL of hulu and you can even in settings tell it to eliminate all commercials. So you get HULU free with no commercials.
No Apple TV news. iOS 6, Mountain Lion, and new Macs only. iPhone, iPod, Apple TV, and iPad mini later in the year.