Apple has incrementally updated the AppleTV. The new boxes have been torn apart and people have been analyzing the internal changes. MacRumors has posted a story about changes to the A5 chip. It has been shrunked down significantly. It'll be interesting to see if this chip is used only in the AppleTV or if it is used in some future smaller, lower power device.
Jean-Louis Gassee has written a lengthy post for his Monday Note blog about the long running concept of the Apple television project, or lack of. He has a lot of interesting thoughts and I find it remarkable that Gene Munster has even a scrap of credibility on the topic anymore.
I think this market will still take a lot of time to succumb to the pressures of the modern consumer. Apple has shown repeatedly that they're not as concerned with being the first into a new market as they are with doing something that markedly changes what people expect of the market. I expect the Apple television to be more of the same.
Apple's iPhone has been available now for almost 5 years. In that time, there have been countless improvements to the software and evolutionary changes to the hardware. The device has changed materials, gotten thinner, doubled it's screen resolution, added better cameras, a flash and countless other internal changes to make the product better. What hasn't changed is the number of buttons on the device.
It's time for a change.
Since day one, the iPhone has been essentially a one button device. Sure, it has two volume up/down buttons and an On/off button, but it's the Home button that does all the real work in operating the phone. In Apple's endless quest for elegance and simplicity, it was a radical choice for a new phone design. A choice only Apple would conceive of, yet alone release into the world. For five years that choice has proven to be a great one. So why would I call for a change? Because Apple created a streaming protocol called Airplay, introduced by Steve Jobs at an iPod event in September, 2010.
What is Airplay? It's a really good question and has multiple tracks. Fundamentally, it's a technology that allows an Apple iOS device to transmit audio or video to another Apple device or licensed third-party device. The technology has evolved from being audio only, to photo & video, and finally to screen sharing. Practically, it's a core technology that will define Apple's future product usage experience. Apple clearly believes so too because it will be baked into OS X in 10.8 Mountain Lion.
The question of what Airplay is was highlighted recently in the technology press. Famously, Time Warner CEO Glenn A. Britt said, "I'm not sure I know what Airplay is." Popular Apple bloggers reacted to this admission with well deserved derision. See here and here. I even added my voice here. But then I thought about the issue a little more and realized old Glenn may have done Apple a favor by highlighting a problem in need of some simplification.
Now don't think for a second that I'm giving Mr. Britt a pass here. The CEO of a major cable provider should absolutely have product knowledge of what Apple is doing to impact their core business. But I wondered, how many people I know with iOS devices know what Airplay is? So I started asking around. The results surprised me, but perhaps they shouldn't have. Better than 80% of the people I asked had never heard of or used Airplay. This included people who had seen me play music from my iPhone on my stereo system and project photos from my iPad onto my television.
Why is this?
The fundamental reason people don't know about Airplay even though they use Airplay capable devices daily is because it's not an easily discoverable or accessible feature. It's buried in software under an icon of a solid triangle over a hollow rectangular frame. It looks a lot like an eject button. The average iOS user doesn't just go around tapping random software buttons.
A contributing factor is that the Airplay button doesn't even exist unless there's an Airplay enabled device in range of the user. While that makes sense from a usage standpoint, it does nothing to promote the adoption of Airplay capable devices by iOS device users. It's not like Apple to miss out on an opportunity to sell additional hardware that enhances the user experience. How is a person to discover this amazing feature even exists?
Now imagine the next iPhone with a dedicated hardware Airplay button along the side. A user takes the phone out of the box and examines it. Certainly that button will be pushed. If the button is pushed and there are no Airplay devices in range, a window pops open and offers a brief demonstration of what Airplay can do while providing a link to purchase Airplay devices in the Apple Store. Think iAd presentation for an unknown, amazing feature. If Airplay devices are in range, a window pops up with a list of available devices and a universal display mirroring On/off slider at the top of the list. The tutorial and sales link could still be available at the bottom of the scrolling device list.
Why is this important to Apple? It's important because every iOS device user immediately becomes aware of Airplay, and more importantly, probably wants to use it. It doesn't take much to imagine sales of AppleTV increasing dramatically. I can hear customers now, "I can do all this just by spending $99 on AppleTV"? My AppleTV is one of the most used devices in my household, but many people still don't really know what it does or that it exists. Just the other day I was explaining to a friend that I watch almost all new movies on AppleTV and they asked when Apple had released a television set. This person owns an iPhone.
Apple has painted a picture of effortless device collaboration, but does it really 'just work'? Let's describe two usage scenarios and what it takes to enable Airplay.
Scenario one. Using your iPhone, you arrive at home playing a podcast on your headphones while viewing your Facebook timeline. You want to throw the audio over to your home stereo.
There are two options. Option one is for people unfamiliar with double tapping the Home button. Close Facebook by hitting the home button, navigate to the Music app, launch the app, select the Airplay software button, select the available device, close the Music app, navigate back to the Facebook app and finally, open the Facebook app again (at which point it will probably reload because it's terrible). Option two is to double tap the home button to access the multitasking tray, swipe left to arrive at the music controls, swipe again to arrive at the Airplay and volume options, tap the Airplay software button, select the available device and finally, tap the screen to return to the app.
Wow! I'm not sure it's worth the trouble even if you know it's possible.
With a hardware Airplay button, the steps are much simpler. Click the button, select the available device and watch as the available device list fades away returning you to your timeline.
Scenario two. You're using your iPhone and want to mirror the display to your 60" television to show everyone in the room a picture contained in the USA Today story you're reading.
Here there's only one option, but it's immensely undiscoverable. You have to know you can do it. Only one of the fifteen people I talked with knew it was possible. You double tap the home button to bring up the multitasking tray, swipe left to arrive at the audio controls, swipe left again to arrive at the Airplay controls, tap the software Airplay button to select the available device, slide the display mirroring slider on, tap 'Done' and finally, tap the screen to return to the USA Today app. To exit the mirroring, the process needs to be essentially reversed.
Again, this doesn't ’just work’!
With a hardware Airplay button you click the button, slide the display mirroring slider on, select the available device and watch as the available device list fades away returning you to your USA Today app story. To exit display mirroring, tap the hardware button and select the iPhone button and let the selection screen fade away.
Apple is clearly headed towards a future where all their devices will be connected via Airplay. It's not a stretch to say it will be a fundamental component if there's an actual Apple television one day. I can also see a day where Airplay will be able to share a screen with other iOS devices. Imagine sitting around with friends and throwing a photo gallery onto their devices as you flip through the photos on your iPhone.
It's a core feature of iOS, and an absolutely killer one at that. No other company can offer anything similar because it's all about the ecosystem. The ecosystem Apple has spent many years and billions of dollars building. They can't afford to sacrifice the usability of the feature by restricting it exclusively to software access. At a time when the majority of users activate the multitasking tray by accident, a hardware addition is called for.
It's time to add a button.
Boy Genius Reports today posted a very brief story about a possible TV SDK intoduction at next week's WWDC. If true, and it seems reasonable to me, it will be big news to see how Apple invisions apps working on the current AppleTv.