I tend to agree. However, if the new iPhones can indeed record in 4k, and you have services like YouTube who can supply it, I can see Apple using it as a "tentpole". Not that I think they'll be adding YouTube back in, but the precedent is there. It might round out their movement toward retina screens. Record 4k content on your phone, edit it on your 5k iMac, show it on your 4k capable Apple TV.
Just a thought.
That's how it SHOULD be IMO. But around here, retina 5K makes perfect sense to all of us (because Apple has already endorsed it in a product for sale now).
4K recording on iPhones makes little sense today (because current iPhones can't shoot at 4K) but will be one of the biggest reasons cited for upgrading to the new iPhones if they roll out with 4K recording.
A 4K
TV makes absolutely no sense because the current product doesn't support 4K, "no one can see the difference", "it's just a gimmick like 3d", file sizes, until bandwidth everywhere is expanded, "until there is tons of 4K content available" and so on. We have a plethora of rationale for why "1080p is good enough." They are pretty much the same reasons why "720 is good enough" back when
TV was maxing out at 720p. However, let Apple roll out a 4K
TV and all that sentiment against 4K will evaporate... just like it did when Apple embraced 1080p. In other words, I don't recall many of the very passionately "720p is good enough" crowd railing against Apple when Apple embraced the "gimmick" of 1080p. This is simply set up as a repeat of that same scenario.
I think that if the new iPhone can shoot 4K, current Macs can edit it and we can then drop the rendered 4K file into iTunes where it will play just fine, it would be pretty unfortunate for just one link in the chain from
phone->computer->iTunes->Apple TV 4->4K TV to lack the ability to pass the file on to that TV (and downscaling a 4K file to 1080p and then letting a 4K TV upscale it back to 4K is FAR from the same).
I continue to be hopeful that new iPhones will shoot 4K. If so, it seems like a better Apple presentation if they deliver a complete solution of providing a way for the 4K we shoot on new iPhones to flow through our new
TV to our 4K TVs. It's harder for me to picture Apple gushing about 4K recording in the new iPhone presentation while holding to 1080p in the new
TV part of the presentation. However, I do remember a new iPad rolling out with a retina screen in the same session where the iPad Mini rolled out without retina (and it was fun watching some of us argue how retina was a must-have in that iPad but was not necessary for the Mini... until the following year when the Mini went retina and then we argued why retina was must-have in the Mini).
If there is the split (phone 4K,
TV 1080p), much like last time, we should expect another new
TV model in about 6-12 months that adds the capability.
Just kidding. Price is indeed considerate and for that price we should get something really good...
