What the hell, with all of the Apple streaming television service rumors floating around, we might as well throw a new Apple TV set-top box rumor into the mix…
John Paczkowski of BuzzFeed News says his sources tell him that Apple is ready to debut a successor to its admittedly long in the tooth set-top streaming box at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference, to be held in June.
Paczkowski says the new box will get its own App Store, and the required software development kit to help developers write apps for the new box.
“Sources say Apple’s new Apple TV is a significant overhaul of the device, one intended to undergird Apple’s vision of what the TV viewing experience should be, and to raise the table stakes in a set-top box market cluttered with barely differentiated devices from Amazon, Roku, and others. If I’m understanding the company’s strategy correctly, the new Apple TV isn’t just a play for a stake of the streaming TV market, but for the mythical digital living room. Think TV, music, apps and home automation.”
The new Apple TV box will sport a new external design, along with all-new components inside. The box is said to sport a variant of the company’s latest A8 system on a chip, increased internal storage, (the current box has an anemic 8GB of storage), and an improved operating system, with Siri voice control. The new box will also support HomeKit home automation devices.
While this is all still – say it with me – “rumor and speculation,” the current Apple TV unit hasn’t been updated since 2012, and in the face of the device’s price drop to $69, and the much-rumored streaming service, conditions do look good for a new Apple TV.
What do you think? Has Apple finally decided to replace the aging Apple TV with a new and improved box? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
(UPDATE: 03/20/15 @ 10:52AM CST) – An anonymous Apple employee told MacTrast that “Any employee that refers someone to the Apple TV development team is getting paid $10k as a referral bonus.” (See screenshot of HRWeb email below…)
