The headline for Apple’s media event tomorrow is “It’s been way too long.” That could mean anything, but what I most want it to mean is that the company will unveil a new Apple TV tomorrow. I don’t see how Apple could use that headline and not address that device.
It really has been way very long time since the company updated the Apple TV. The last revision was in late January of 2013, almost twenty-one months ago, or an eternity in tech product cycles. It’s been an especially long time when you consider CEO Tim Cook’s admission that, having done over US$1 billion in business last year, the Apple TV is no longer a hobby but a real business. We’ve been waiting for the fulfillment of this product’s potential for so long that Apple even had time to cook up an entirely new product category in the form of the Apple Watch—I’m not sure how many people were clamoring for the Apple Watch, but I can’t imagine it was as many people as have been clamoring for a new Apple TV.
According to The Verge, this is tomorrow’s announcement slate. There’s nothing about the Apple TV on deck here. If this proves accurate, that almost assuredly means that any new Apple TV would miss this year’s holiday season. Going yet another year without a meaningful upgrade to this product line would make me really wonder if Apple is indeed treating the Apple TV as a real business, and not still like a hobby.
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