It’s been quite a while since the Apple TV was updated, but according to a new report, Apple is planning to roll out the changes in a couple of months’ time. The Apple TV 4 will, as has long been suspected, supposedly include its very own App Store, while the voice assistant Siri will also broaden its horizons and find a new home within the living room.
For years, reports suggested that Apple would come through with its very own connected TV effort, but the way the market has moved to cheaper set-tops offering various streams of content, the Mac maker has instead focused on doing likewise. The cost of the little black box has been reduced across a number of countries in recent times, while the tie-in with HBO a short time ago has underlined Apple’s intent to focus on offering users more options, and now, the time has come for a hardware upgrade.
As per BuzzFeed News, the new Apple TV will be unveiled at the World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC ’15) in June, and finally, will allow third-party developers to get in on the act. As such, there’ll be a dedicated App Store as is already in place for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Mac, while the device itself will be subject to a storage increase and an improved processor that will share many of the properties of the A8 SoC found in the likes of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.
Even though Apple TV has largely shaken off the “hobby” tag, which is what the late Steve Jobs once described it as, it’s still a bit of an also-ran compared with most of the Cupertino company’s other products. But with third-party apps and Siri forthcoming, Apple will have a serious competitor against Amazon, Google and others gracing this crowded category, and while this report doesn’t make mention of gaming, the fact that an App Store is being prepared suggests that Apple may be open to exploring this avenue.
The Worldwide Developers Conference usually spawns several big announcements, and while Apple TV is still a long way off being among the company’s central products, this could well change if today’s report is to be believed.
We’ll keep you guys updated on any further developments relating to Apple TV, so stay tuned!
(Source: BuzzFeed)
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