Apple Television Set Not Expected Until 2015 or Later, But A7 Apple TV Could Come in 2014

[Menel]

Just can't help but think it may be too little too late for Apple. They started out fine with their first two Apple TV streamers as it gave us a hobby to play around with. Even though they were locked down being able to jailbreak and install XBMC made it a non issue.

Now we see Roku pretty much dominating the streamer market, because rather than restricting their device they opened it up to channel developers. With over a 1000 channels available, and more released almost every day they are quickly becoming the industry standard when it comes to media streamers. Check out this impressive list and compare it to what is available for Apple TV.

So even if we could buy an Apple Television with a built in ATV streamer at what will be undoubtedly be a hefty price, why would we want to limit ourselves. As quickly as technology changes this is just one more piece that may quickly become obsolete while the TV portion continues to function fine. Remember when TVs had stereos and record players built in? That fell out of favor quickly.

It seems like a step backwards and in my humble opinion Apple would be better off investing in shrinking the AppleTV the way Roku did so it could be the size of a USB stick and plug directly into a HDMI port. Out of site and easily upgradable. There is no question Apple hardware and UI are great, just open up the Apple TV to developers already and start competing on content.

Its FAR from too late. Maybe it dominates the geek market. Small box streamers have almost no market penetration among normal people who have cable, and their cable provider box/dvr.

 

[alegoje]

A TV that is a computer and entertainment center

What I want is a great-looking TV that is also a computer and an entertainment center. So I can watch regular air tv, cable or netflix if I want, then I can browse the web with a great an easy to use interface, if I need to I can open Excel or Word, then when the kids take over they can do homework through the web or play great games with a hand-held controller or iPad/iPhone/Android. I guess it is a challenge, but if feasible Apple will have a new consolidated product category.

 

[LordVic]

Its FAR from too late. Maybe it dominates the geek market. Small box streamers have almost no market penetration among normal people who have cable, and their cable provider box/dvr.

one of the reasons though could be argued that the Cable companies have too much power in the industry and are purposely sabotaging adoption of other technologies.

Where I am, The entire media industry is basically 2 companies. Bell and Rogers. And they own virtually every single media agency in the entire region. All the news programs. All the TV networks and virtually all of our local production.

They also then control entirely the distribution networks. The cable networks and system (or satellite).

They then Also control the internet and the internet delivery system.

They have gone out of their way to make switching over to internet based TV near impossible.

They blackout local sporting events on their legit online streaming services (which they own), so that the only way to watch Leafs or Raptors for example is Exclusively via Roger's or Bell Satellite. They refuse Over the Air content for virtually every one of their own network. They use their own encrypted digital boxes so that they can continue to charge you outlet fees (want 3 recepticles for 3 digital boxes? thats 3 "access fees").

When Netflix came here and threatened their own services, Roger's and Bell dropped monthly caps and upped the rates for going over.

it is Very hard to change and adapt to newer technologies such as Apple TV's and Roku's when those who make, Produce, Ship and control the content make it impossible to leave them.

I've been trying to cut my cable for years. I've basically dropped down to the most basic of services, But even that I can't get rid of because I love watching Live sports.

Break the media monopolies (oligopolies technically) so that single companies can no longer control the entire pipeline, and you might start seeing mroe and more people dump the standard cable packages for online tools. that would help drive the adoption of these internet settop boxes