Coming into 2012, with rumours and theories running wild, we all hoped for a new Apple TV in time for Christmas. While we did get a slew of new tablets from Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Samsung and others, all Apple had for us was an upgraded iPhone and a handful of new iPad updates and sizes. The contents of our pockets may have changed, but Apple has left our living rooms largely untouched.
Myriad issues have held back the new Apple TV, from complex dealings and integration with established broadcast cable providers to hardware design and supply issues to the necessary evolution of iOS SDKs ― but we won't be kept waiting forever. There's every reason to expect the new product to launch in 2013. When it does, we're likely to see massive disruption of the broadcast and gaming industries, the rise of an age of TV apps and an even stronger leadership role for Apple in software, media, communications and consumer devices.
What will the coming Apple TV look like, and what will it mean for our industry? There's plenty of information available to guide our speculation. Let's imagine Christmas 2013, and the new line of Apple TV products I hope to find under my tree.
What is the new Apple TV?
The new Apple TV will be defined by three key values for consumers:
1) The best way to consume broadcast TV and any online video.
A seamless touch- and TV-based interface makes it simple to consume your existing cable and broadcast content, including video-on-demand (VOD) libraries and DVR features. Via iTunes, you also get instant access to mega-libraries and subscriptions from iTunes, Netflix, Hulu, not to mention YouTube. Naturally, you can also access any AirPlay-enabled videos on the Web, as well as TV apps updated with the new iOS 7 SDK.
2) The ultimate game console.
The new Apple TV will be a direct assault on the game console industry, with a living room platform that should leave Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony running scared. With a single launch, Apple will extend the iOS gaming distribution ecosystem into the living room and invent new categories of gaming through the interaction of iOS devices with Apple TV.
3) The best way to experience all of your apps.
Crucially, the new Apple TV will extend nearly every existing iOS app into being a TV app that brings the power and richness of large display surfaces to consumer computing ― a task that nearly every industry titan has attempted and failed. The combination of touch and TV will ignite a new era in dual-screen software application design and development in which it will become hard to believe that Internet software was once based solely on PCs, phones and tablets.
Fulfilling the Apple product design fetish
Everyone wants to know what the new Apple TV will look like, what it will include inside and how it will connect all of Apple's existing consumer and developer offerings. As usual, product packaging and design are fundamental components of Apple's go-to-market strategy, complemented by its unique ability to leverage its existing app, content and device ecosystem.
Apple already has an ecosystem of nearly one million apps, the world's best library of a la carte media and hundreds of millions of device customers. In an ideal world, Apple would like to sell the majority of these customers a new device product for TV. The company also needs to find new £20 billion+ /year businesses to keep up its pace of growth and value creation. The key is to introduce a product franchise that defines the consumer experience, owns the extension of the app platform into the TV, and captures as many users as possible, as quickly as possible ― while taking enormous share from an established, multi-hundred billion pound/year industry.
To do this, Apple needs a two-pronged strategy:
1) A new companion device for TV
that starts at £149, attaches to nearly any existing TV, and does not require customers to buy an expensive new monitor. This is crucial for quickly establishing and maintaining platform dominance quickly and even stand-alone could be a £3-7 billion opportunity.
2) A new family of ultra-thin TV monitors
that bundles all of the capabilities of the companion device and includes beefed up computing power. These large-screen monitors will be a direct assault on the global TV monitor industry, a market worth hundreds of billions annually, albeit with slightly slower replacement cycles of four years versus two years for smartphones and tablets. This gives Apple that additional £20 billion+ revenue stream it needs.
Combined, these new products will radically transform the computing, media and electronics industry, and more deeply cement Apple's role as the de facto platform for content and apps.
Let's take a closer look at each of these products.
The new Apple TV companion
Designed with a new A7 quad-core CPU, the device provides enough horsepower to deliver 1080p HD video and the most demanding gaming graphics; built-in front-facing sensors and camera; and enough storage for loads of games, apps, content, and recorded live TV.
The device offers HDMI and digital audio output, a gigabit Ethernet port and built-in WiFi, as well as a two lightning ports ― one for power, another for the included "coax dongle," which connects directly to most existing cable TV hook-ups to replace your existing cable set-top box. More on that later.
As we've come to expect from Apple, the product is offered in a sleek and slim form-factor that sits easily on top of or under any existing TV. I suspect a thin horizontal bar such as we've rendered here:
This design puts the device truly at the centre of the living room, a compact porthole into the entire digital economy. Developers can leverage the front-facing sensors and camera in the same way they build on existing iOS APIs; in fact, the new platform launch will likely include iOS 7 with support for new TV apps and Apple TV SDKs.
For existing iPhone and iPad users who already own a flat-screen TV, this new TV companion device will be a great bargain that also radically expands the value of their existing devices. This will also be a highly popular form-factor for multi-monitor households, offices and even retail establishments.
Part three
By Jeremy Allaire - founder, chairman and CEO of Brightcove.
Content on this page is provided and controlled by Brightcove.
