Tim Cook said it himself: “the television experience has been virtually standing still while innovation has been thriving with other devices like the iPhone and iPads.” While already being spoiled by a range of on-demand entertainment services like Netflix or ShowMax today, Apple believes there’s room for much more innovation in this space.
Alongside a range of other new product announcements at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco today, the Apple CEO made it clear that he’s adamant to “revolutionise” the TV market as we know it.
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The announcement of the new Apple TV came alongside brand new straps for the Apple Watch, an iPad Pro which measures at 12.9-inches in diameter and Apple’s latest flagship smartphone, the iPhone 6S.
But while Cook boasted high customer satisfaction rates of the smartwatch and a massive 35% year-on-year growth for the iPhone, it’s the television play that’s the really big news from the night.
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Borrowing a page or two from other tech giants that have tried to crack the code for revolutionising TV, Apple seems to have what it takes to finally take the near decade-old invention to the next level.
First introduced in 2012, the Apple TV is the culmination of a set-top box and a suite of entertainment for your television set. While the Cupertino giant had to compete with the likes of Google, Roku and Amazon in this category, the Apple TV’s sales topped US$1-billion in 2013 — becoming Apple’s fastest growing hardware product.
“We need a new foundation for TV,” Cook said, who believes that the future of television lies in apps. The CEO added that over 60% of paid TV consuming is done through an Apple device.
But the Apple TV introduces so much more than apps. For starters, the set-top box will let you interact with the device through voice and with touch.
This means that you’ll be able to interact with the much-loved Siri digital assistant to help you find what you’re looking for. Looking for action movies starring George Clooney? Simply ask Siri and she’ll guide you in an instant.
While this sounds very exciting, it’s pretty much exactly what Amazon introduced in 2012 in the shape of its X-Ray feature which enables people to search media entertainment using Internet Movie Database (IMDB).
If you’re not into voice navigation, you can always rely on the trusty Apple Remote which is a Nintendo Wii-inspired motion remote control.
Naturally, the Apple TV is also geared for family entertainment games. Playing a game such as Beat Sports, for example, requires you to swing your arm to smack on-coming balls on the screen. The motion-controller picks up your movements.
Both Nintendo and Amazon have had a hard time selling their hardware products, regardless of how innovative they were two or three years ago.
But as Apple’s showed us time and time again, it doesn’t necessarily need to be at the frontlines of innovation in order to beat its competitors to the chase. It simply needs to know how to bring these things together and, more importantly, sell them.
The Apple TV will ship in October.
