The Future of TV
The future of TV is apps, says Apple. We agree.
There was no shortage of great announcements coming out of Apple this morning. The new iPhone 6S and 6S Plus. A 13-inch iPad Pro with a don’t-call-me-a-stylus Apple Pencil. An updated iPad Mini 4. Even new native apps that run right from your Apple Watch. All rather expected.
But perhaps the biggest surprise for us, and all the other app developers in sunny San Francisco, is the revamped Apple TV, and a new app ecosystem that promises to revolutionize the boob tube.
The road was paved by set top boxes from the likes of Roku and Amazon. Those let users tap into apps as well, but users rarely strayed from core functionality. But with the new Apple TV, you’re getting a lot more than just Netflix and Hulu. New apps driven by Apple’s tvOS will bring to the living room fitness games, video games, movies and TV, all courtesy of the new Apple TV App Store.
“We believe the future of TV is apps,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook. And we, addicted to Game of Thrones on HBO GO, House of Cards on Netflix, and all manner of video games in any form we can get our hands on, happen to agree. This paves the way for seamless iPhone-to-iPad-to-Mac-to-TV functionality, a world in which you play games on one screen and move to another. Yes it’s already possible, but the synergy between Apple products makes this a feature you will actually use.
Apple showed off a number of games from top tier developers like Harmonix. The simple, kid-friendly games that work best on Apple TV most closely resemble the experience Nintendo has been bringing us with the Wii and DS handheld. In short, Apple has its eye of Sauron fixed on the family gaming market with games that only cause a couple bucks in the App Store. Nintendo has just been put on notice.
All of this is helped out by a slick new glass remote with a trackpad and voice-command button (which would make a great way to communicate via Skype as well).
The new Apple TV is scheduled to launch in October to more than 80 countries for $149 with 32GB of storage, and $199 for 64GB. Even better, the tvOS developer beta opens today. Our engineers are already rocking out with it. This time next year, we think the app ecosystem for Apple TV will be booming.
Contact Appstem if you have any questions about the future of TV.
