Rumors about the next iteration of Apple TV have coalesced around a few key facts – the device is expected to be named iTV in the style of the company’s more successful offerings, run customers an easy $99 and be fully revealed sometime in the fall.
Engadget is reporting that the set top box will resemble the iPhone 4’s appearance and capabilities, including apps, but will only be capable of playing back video at 720p, same as the current Apple TV.
Apple first launched Apple TV in 2007, when it basically flopped. Steve Jobs tried again in 2008, when he admitted the difficulty Apple faced in trying to get Web-enabled TV into consumers’ living rooms: “All of us have tried. We have, Microsoft, Amazon, TiVo, Netflix, Blockbuster. We’ve all tried to figure out how to get movies, over the internet onto a widescreen TV, and you know what, we’ve all missed. No one has succeeded yet.”
Note: An excellent point as to why Internet TV has yet to succeed was made in the comments by Chris McCray, a UK resident and voracious data-user. McCray points out that watching multiple movies in a week could easily push data usage upwards of 40 GB. Compare that to the two and three GB Comcast says its average residential users consume.
Apple is reportedly hosting an event in mid-September.
If the rumors are true, Apple could be announcing iTV at the same time the first Google TV comes out. The blatantly-named “Sony Internet TV,” the first TV running Google’s Android-based platform, is scheduled to be released in the fall. Google TV will be capable of playing back video at 720p or 1080p.
But with apps, an affordable price tag, and a few more years of introducing members of the uninitiated public to the iPhone and the iPod under its belt, it’s possible Apple could crack the mainstream this time.
