Just a week before Apple holds its yearly September announcement on new products and enhancements, speculation is mounting about the future of Apple TV.
Next week Apple will hold its September 9 event in San Francisco, and insiders expect Apple to raise – or even double – its price of the new generation Apple TV 4.0 to between $149 and $199. At such prices, Apple would need more content than its competitors such as Roku and Amazon Fire.
Today’s Variety has the most sensational story, claiming that Apple is exploring getting into the original programming business. This could indeed give Apple TV an advantage over its peers.
According to the report, Apple has held preliminary conversations in recent weeks with executives in Hollywood to suss out their interest in spearheading efforts to produce entertainment content.
Meanwhile, according to various sources, the fourth-generation Apple TV will actively compete for TV gamers with updated hardware, software, and peripherals that will debut at the Apple event. Also, the remote control is believed to have a complete make-over including a Home button as well as incorporating Siri voice control.
Other reports suggest that announcement about possible Apple TV live streaming content deals are being postponed to sometime next year.
According to a new analysis from TDG, The In-Home CE and Home Networking Ecosystem, 2015, internet set-top boxes (iSTBs) such as Apple TV and Roku are now present in 21% of US broadband households, up from 13% in early 2014 (an increase in penetration of 63% in the last year).
“20 million US households now use an Internet set-top box to access streaming TV services,” notes Michael Greeson, founder and director of research at TDG.
“As Apple prepares to launch its new Internet set-top box, it does so knowing demand for such platforms have significant headroom, and will be driven by not only greenfield purchases, but multi-unit and replacement sales, as well.”
TDG’s research indicates that iSTBs are particularly popular among adult broadband users between the ages of 25 and 44 (29% penetration). By contrast, only one-in-five Late Millennials (18-24s) use an iSTB, with viewers more likely to turn to game consoles than newer platforms.
