Apple’s new iTV or Apple TV 3 has been hugely anticipated for months now after Steve Jobs biography quoted that he had finally cracked it. The iTV as its now being dubbed has two possible forms, the TV set (actual screen) and a set-up box (like the Apple TV 1 and 2) with the first being more likely. So what’s going to be on this thing? What route is Apple going to go on this? Allow me to go over what I think will happen, including the price, release and features.
First the price and possible release. There are going to be three different sizes. One small, one medium and one large. It will be black with a white Apple logo on the bottom and back. The sizes will range from 29-31 inch for low end, 38-40 inch for medium and a 49-52 for a high end. The prices would go from 499 to 999 to 14-1699 respectively. The Apple cinema display will go down significantly in price if it were to even sell at all. Of course these are just educated guesses and they could be higher or lower than that. The product maybe mentioned in the iPad 3 launch keynote but that is unlikely considering Apple likes to keep their keynotes focused on one thing. The fact that it might release this year probably won’t happen at all. Apple likes to have it’s products released separately from each other so people don’t choose one over the other since people can only afford maybe one or two Apple purchases a year depending on the product. There are three ways they can go about releasing it. One, they could announce alongside the iPad 3 since the iPad 3 could indeed be a controller for it. Two, they could have the iPad 3 come out now (which is what’s happening anyway) and have the TV be released in Late 2012. Three, they could have iPad 3 come out now and iTV this time next year. I believe that Apple will want to prove it can still kick butt after Steve so it will probably do the second option with iPad 3 come out now, MacBook Pros come out in early summer, maybe as early as April. The OS X Mountain Lion coming out in the summer and the iTV in the Winter. All this and an expected complete refresh of its iPod line. iPhone 5 is also expected. The Mac Pro is also either to be cut or seriously upgraded. Would it be too much to ask for iOS 5.3 by the time all this is done. It certainly sounds like 2012 will be an incredibly busy year for Apple, perhaps their busiest yet. But, I digress, let’s get back to the iTV, more specifically the features.
What will it be?: The TV will be an actually TV this time instead of a box like Apple TV. This will prove to be very good choice for Apple considering the features that are not only discussed but are wanted by its customers.
Specs: The iTV will be insanely thin, more than likely one of their most yet. It will have to be about the thickness of the iPad 1. It may be closer to the iPad 2 thickness but don’t count on it since the iTV will probably be jam-packed with awesome specs that the thickness of an iPad 2 just couldn’t handle, at least not yet. It will have a really good SSD hard drive. It will be able to contain much information, possibly 250-500 GB. It will have a really good processor to able to handle insanely great graphics, possibly retina display capabilities, I know for a fact that that is higher than the current high of 1080p. It is unknown and unforeseeable if Apple will make its own TV service like AT&T or just make a TV that can be used for one of these services. The first option seems a lot more likely than the first.
Siri: First Siri will be put into the TV. It will allow you to search things on safari or youtube, it can also respond to commands like “record The Apprentice” or “tune to the Animal Planet” or simply “Animal Planet”. There are two ways to go about doing controlling. A remote control by itself is out of context. Siri will need to be put into the iTV. Apple can either have a touch screen remote that you talk into. The remote transfers what you said to the TV. It can also have no remote, have Siri and another feature like a motion sensor. I personally believe that the second option would be better. Allow me to explain.
Apps and Games: The only gimme of the iTV is that it WILL have an app store for it. These apps will have to be controlled. Siri alone will not be able to this. It could be able to search things on Safari or YouTube, but telling Siri to “move bird directly back at 37 degrees then fire the bird at those pigs”. That simply wont work. This is where he motion sensor comes in. The sensor will be able to turned on off with a simple command. A game like fruit ninja already has this kind of ability. I would not expect Call of Duty games to reach the iTV if they are to do this. You’ll have to rely on your iPad 3 to mirror to the TV. The iPad 3 just might be able to handle MW2 or 3. Who knows?
iCloud: This is a total gimme since its already on their iOS devices and about to be in all the Macs as well with OS X Mountain Lion. The functionality of iCloud paired with the TV will allow the TV to be able to show photos, play music, play your iTunes movies . It will also sync with the safaris of your Mac and iOS devices to keep your bookmarks across devices.
Internet services: As I mentioned before, there will be a Safari for the iTV. There will also be separate YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter apps. Like iOS it will have Twitter, and probably Facebook in it, allowing you to post what you’re watching when you’re watching it. It will have its own separate app store. It will have its own iTunes app, allowing you to purchase not only music but movies as well. TV shows will not be necessary. Apple may cut its TV show section of its iTunes store entirely as not to create conflict.
How will Apple get these TV show companies to participate in making yet another TV service? Easy, Apple has an incredible consumer base (it is the most valuable company in the world). TV show producers see that Apple has this base and they will be able to participate. They will do it the way Verizon and AT&T did it, but probably in less time.
If Apple is to make these TVs, they will become their most innovative and creative yet. They will probably become one of Apple’s main source of income along with iOS devices. I believe Apple will be able to pull it off and over time it will have the majority of the TV market.
What do you believe Apple will do with their upcoming iTV? What do you think of the ideas mentioned above? Do you think there are other features besides the ones I mentioned? What do you think Apple will do with its future products (New MacBook Pro, iPad 3, it’s new line of iPods, Mac Pro etc.)?
Thanks for reading,
Joe