As always, Apple’s annual announcement event garnered substantial news attention, but was any of it worth watching? This years certainly was, whether you are excited about the next generation of iPhones, 4K Apple TV, or maybe you just wanted to catch a glimpse of the opulent Steve Jobs Theater, the 2017 Apple event certainly delivered. Out of all the announcements, one stood out to us as the most exciting–Apple TV 4K. Will this be enough to jettison Apple TV securely to the top of the set-top box charts? Let’s take a closer look.
The Apple TV 4K is the first true next-generation set-top box. It supports 4K resolution, HDR 10 and Dolby Vision–making it effectively future proof for at least a few years. The device will even come with an updated UI that was designed with 4K content in mind.
The Apple TV 4K will start at $179 for the 32GB version. The 64GB version will retail for $199–$49 more than the previous generations 64GB model. Apple announced that they will start taking orders for the Apple TV 4K on September 15th with models actually becoming available on September 22.
Of course, this means your going to have to get 4K content to play on your Apple TV! Don’t worry, Apple has that figured out too. 4K content will be offered via iTunes for the same price as HD content is being offered at now. Not only that, but Apple has announced that they will auto-upgrade people’s existing HD libraries to 4K free of charge!
The Apple TV 4K also comes with upgrades to its processing power as well. The new model will sport a A10X fusion chip–the same one that runs the iPad Pro–and offers graphics two times faster than the current gen Apple TV.
Will this be enough for Apple TV to become ruler of set-top boxes? Maybe. According to Parks Associates Roku is still safely in the lead with 37% of US homes owning a Roku device. It will be interesting to see how these numbers change after the launch of the Apple TV 4K.
Sources:
http://www.multichannel.com/news/content/apple-intros-apple-tv-4k/415188
