The Apple TV hasn’t exactly thrilled consumers over its long history. Oh, they’ve bought it, they like it, it’s just not the iPhone, or really the Roku for that matter. And Apple doesn’t seem interested in trying to change that just yet, if the new 4K Apple TV is any indication.
Bloomberg has an article that more or less notes the two big new features will be higher resolution and high dynamic range, also known as HDR. HDR’s interesting because it improves the luminosity of an image, or how much light seems to be reflected, making it feel more like a natural image instead of something filmed. The really interesting part, though, is looking at all the stuff Apple managed to dodge a bullet by not doing. See if anything in this paragraph feels familiar:
Early on, the Apple TV was going to replace the clunky set-top boxes from the cable companies and stream live television. It never happened. The team debated bundling a gaming controller with the current model to better compete with Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox and Sony Corp.’s PlayStation. That didn’t happen either. Originally, viewers were going to be able to shout commands from the couch to the Apple TV. Instead they must talk to the remote control.
Considering the fate of the Xbox One’s shouted voice commands, Amazon’s struggle to make a notch in console gaming after its ambitious bid a few years ago, and the struggles of pretty much any service to get cord-cutters to embrace cable, it’s hard not to see Apple has having dodged several bullets.
And it appears in the future, Apple is hoping to be the middleman between you and your cable provider, letting you hook up your Apple TV to your cable connection to make for a unified experience. Or, if Apple can’t pull that off, something they’ve been trying for years, then at least get involved in the skinny bundle wars, where you pay a fixed price for a handful of streaming channels.