Apple TV, AirPlay and why the iPad is the new TV apps platform

Written by

Jeremy Allaire, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Brightcove:

Apple will not anytime soon launch a competitive subscription video product to cable. (but)…the iPhone and iPad in your pocket or handbag is the next-generation TV set-top box, and it is both highly personal and highly social and capable of bringing hundreds of thousands and soon millions of rich interactive applications and experiences onto your TV set. Apple will release a new Apple TV add-on product, though I expect that rather than using the current “puck” design it will instead be a thin black bar, perhaps 1 inch tall and 3 inches wide, that can easily mount to the top of almost any existing HD capable TV set. Like the existing Apple TV, it will have HDMI and power jacks on the back, but it will also include a high-def camera built into its face, as well as an embedded iOS environment that provides motion sensing and speech processing.

Very interesting analysis and, I believe, almost exactly the way Apple’s future on your television will be.



  • kvanh

    Needs native apps. Airplay is nice but just a variant on streaming from a Mac. Dedicating an iPad to TV use seems expensive. If it isn’t dedicated you get into fights over using the iPad as an iPad or as a streaming source.

    I’ve been predicting since iOS 4.5 that Apple TV will get native apps, so I’ll keep making the prediction ’til i’m right. iOS 6 will have native ATV apps and it’s own app store.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Marcus-R-Moore/676140569 Marcus R. Moore

      Where are these apps supposed to be stored on the AppleTV? It only contains 8GB of internal memory, and most of that is necessary for buffering the streaming video from iTunes.

      The only apps I can see existing on the current AppleTV hardware are the kind of apps that already exist there- channels. Apps like Netfix and HBOGO have a very small footprint, so you could have dozens of them on an AppleTV before it would have a serious impact on the storage.

      Also, if Apple was prepping AppleTV for apps like games, why did they hobble it with a single-core A5 processor variant?

      The AppleTV isn’t meant to be a standalone device- it’s a conduit for content from either the web, via content apps like Netflix or iTunes, or a portal for games and other apps via AirPlay.

      • lucascott

        I have to agree with Marcus. The Apple TV doesn’t need native apps beyond the type of apps it is already getting. But I also agree with the idea that we should be able to decide which apps out of that type are included. And I don’t see any reason why Apple might not bump the storage up to 16 or even perhaps 32GB now that they are pushing the higher 1080p video into the system. 64GB I think would be the max they might ever go, maybe an 8GB drive for the apps and a 64GB for the caching style but that’s it.

        Even with the notion of a limited Apple TV ‘store’ I don’t know that they would handle it quite the same way as they do regular apps. It might be more like restrictions on iOS where you turn off features you don’t need or want and they become invisible. You might even have full on restrictions so that the kiddies can’t watch the stuff out of the apps that have things above what you think is proper for them. Or the ability to have an app on but things above the ratings you turn on are hidden. But all the apps are there in the device.

        Games and such would still be done via Airplay. With better wifi handling like the new 802.11ac at some point of course.

        The real key will be the content that these apps can conduit. Better quality files, more selection, better timing and pricing. LP and Extras that actually work on iOS. That’s the stuff that will make or break the system.

      • kvanh

        Apple still sells iPhones with only 8GB in them, apparently many people find that sufficient not just for streaming but storing all they want. HD movies, even at 1080p clock in at well under 8GB and you can buffer significantly less than a full movie and have acceptable playback.

        Not to mention that if you can stream music/tv shows/movies from iCloud, why not stream your apps as well?

        The single core will present a problem for games, but I don’t see apple trying to compete with even the Wii at this point, I see it for exactly the apps you mention, streaming apps that can be updated without apple having to roll out a whole new OS update.

        The interface is busy enough, why require everyone to have all those icons for stuff they don’t use? Move to app store model and users get just the icons they want.

        Start adding more sports like football, soccer, rugby, darts, etc and the initial screen gets pretty unusable.

        • http://www.facebook.com/people/Marcus-R-Moore/676140569 Marcus R. Moore

          Apple continues to sell the 8GB 3GS as a $0 contract option, so I wouldn’t judge a current product Apple would launch by those standards.

          As well, the 8GB phone was running 480×320 apps, not the 1920×1080 native resolution apps that Apple would want running on in an AppleTV appStore. That’s higher resolution that both the Retina iPhone and first two generation iPads.

          There’s just not enough local storage for apps at this resolution AND maintaining a healthy overhead for the device’s primary function as a media streaming device. HD movies in 1080 are now upwards of 5-6GB. The less space you leave for streaming, the more chance that the movie will have to have to re-buffer during playback. This leaves 2 or 3GB optimistically for permanent app storage.

          Along with the already outdated processor, which I believe is benchmarked at somewhere near the speed of the 2010 iPhone4 CPU, but driving almost TWICE as many pixels.

          I just don’t see it…

  • kvanh

    You can get the iPhone 4 (not the 4s) with 8 gb as well and the latest iPod touch too.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Marcus-R-Moore/676140569 Marcus R. Moore

      But again, apps for the AppleTV would be 1920×1080 vs 960×640. That makes a big difference. And the ability of the AppeTVs single-core A5 to run applications at that resolution would be similarly constrained.

      Little storage. Higher resolution. Slower processor.

      We can agree to disagree. But I just don’t think it adds up for any apps other than custom content TV channels like the ones that exist on the AppleTV already.