Admittedly, I had low expectations for this year’s recent Apple keynote. As I listened to the list of Apple’s new product announcements I was unimpressed: iPad Pro. Apple Watch. iPhone 6s. Apple Pencil. Yawn. However, what blew me away was the Apple TV.
Introduced in 2007, the Apple TV seemed unremarkable. It took on the reputation of a forgotten product with more promise than function, and I wouldn’t have been surprised if Apple decided to totally scrap the project. However, Apple CEO Tim Cook brought new life and vision to Apple TV by declaring, “The Future of Television is Apps.” When we watched Apple’s product demo, my jaw dropped from seeing all the different possibilities. Right off the bat, I can see Apple TV replacing the DVR, cable TV, large room video conferencing, and console gaming.
The Television of Tomorrow
The interface leverages Siri, which seems light years ahead of the clumsy interface that I use with my cable box. But that’s not the secret sauce; it’s the fact that Apple has opened up its SDK and has created tvOS (based on iOS 9). This will allow developers to create apps for Apple TV and to be distributed by the Apple TV App Store. The next app gold rush will soon be upon us.
Apple also introduced their new controller which uses Siri and can be used like a Wii wireless controller. Interesting enough, the iPhone and iPod Touch can also become controllers. Couple this with developer’s porting their games to Apple TV, and we could be seeing the demise of Xbox and the PlayStation.
Things are going to get interesting when network television and local television stations start providing live streaming and on-demand content through their own branded apps. By doing so, they can provide targeted interactive advertising, with supported analytics and demographics rarely ever seen in television advertising. For example, based on my user profile, I would see interactive trailers for Sci Fi movies and subscription offers for Fast Company - which I can instantly buy with my credit card on file.
Best of all for advertisers, unlike the DVR, the user won’t be able to fast forward the ads. Once a critical mass of TV stations and networks begin developing their own apps, it will lead to the end of the DVR and Cable TV.
Now imagine Apple TV as a standard for conference rooms. Third party apps will replace large video conferencing systems like Cisco Telepresence. Presentations will be delivered by an app, controlled by an iPhone. And when the screen’s idle, it will display creative and useful digital signage.
One can argue that the mobile app market was first started when Apple opened up their SDK for the iPhone. Amazing new applications have been developed, including the likes of $50 billion behemoth Uber. In a similar fashion, I expect amazing innovations will be developed on the Apple TV. The most sucecessful companies are already digging into the technology - don't get left behind.