What's next for the Apple TV?
Friday, October 8, 2010 at 3:50PM It just doesn't feel right...
The newly released Apple TV just feels empty and yet promises so much.
With the revelation that the Apple TV is built on iOS, has the same A4 processor as in the iPad and has 8GB of local storage, it's obvious that Apple has big plans for the shiny hockey puck device.
The question is not so much what (content delivered via apps), but when?
Why start shipping a device now, when it's so obviously capable of so much more?
Now that one iteration of Google TV has a proper launch date, and a price - Logitech Revue to be launched at the end of October - $299 - (Excuse me? How much?), Apple really need to come clean with the future plans for the Apple TV and stop messing about with this hobby malarky.
My gut feeling is that they'll be in a position to announce something much sooner than people are expecting, even before Christmas.
Here is some wild and unsubstantiated speculation:
September 2010
Apple needed to get the Apple TV launched as soon as possible to establish the supply chain and get the product to market a good three months before Christmas. With the price point, they would be confident that they'd sell a load to existing Apple customers and manage the delivery of the Apple TV as a two stage process - base functionality to early adopters and and an enhanced version for the mass market when the supporting services and additional features were in place.
September 1st - The new iPod range is introduced along with the Apple TV. In an unusual move, they preview iOS 4.1 (for launch a week of two later) but also demonstrate iOS 4.2, bringing multitasking to the iPad and significantly for the Apple TV, Airplay
iOS 4.2 is not scheduled for release until November but the announcement is made well in advance of the release building up anticipation with iOS device users. At this point, it's not fully finished so they can only display a minimal demo. It's enough to demonstrate that the potential of the technology is huge.
iTunes 10 is introduced and AirTunes is rebranded as AirPlay
October 2010
The Apple TV is launched. No apps but the device is received well despite some minor irritations, all of which can be fixed with a firmware upgrade. As expected, the new Apple TV acts as an AirPlay device out of the box but only supporting Audio for now.
October 18th 2010 - Apple's Quarterly Earnings report - Expected to show huge numbers for both iPhone 4 and iPad sales. Stock price will be boosted significantly but Apple will be looking for a double whammy effect, following up the earnings announcement with another big announcement.
W/c October 25th or w/c November 1st - Press are invited to a special Town Hall meeting at Apple Campus when iOS 4.2 will be formally announced and released. This time it's the full AirPlay demo with video streamed from iPhones, iPod Touches and iPads to the Apple TV.
As well as the Apple branded products there are also some announcements of third party enabled AirPlay devices as indicated by the BridgeCo partnership
Steve will put up a keynote slide of the new Sony Remote and have a chuckle.
As well as the AirPlay features, Apple also announce the availability of some bespoke apps for the Apple TV but no Apple TV app store. These bespoke apps are custom made apps made in conjunction with delivery partners, engineered in the same way that NetFlix integration has been customised for the Apple TV. No mention is made of specific future apps but more are in development with strategic partners. No indication of an Apple TV SDK as of yet.
As a long shot, it's possible Apple may announce a couple of games for the Apple TV. Designed as full TV screen games, these may rely on iOS devices to act as a remote control using seamless Home Sharing to connect the iOS devices to the Apple TV.
We may even see some mention of FaceTime but I'm not sure if Apple would go down the route of promoting an external video camera attached via the Micro USB port - that may be stretching things a bit to far!
November 2010
Apple TV is updated with the new version of the firmware enabling the bespoke content delivery apps embedded in the Apple TV menu. The firmware update is a free download. Included is a new Games entry on the main menu allowing you purchase a limited number of games.
As I say, wild and unsubstantiated speculation, but would anyone still fancy that $299 Logitech box if this actually happened?