Hey guys, it’s Greg with Apple Explained, and today we’re going to explore the history
of the Apple TV.
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So in this video I want to cover Apples set top box but also include additional elements
of Apple’s involvement in the television market.
Because Apple has and continues to experiment in this industry despite never having released
a traditional television set.
So, I’ll start off by briefly mentioning the Macintosh TV.
This was a short-lived attempt in 1993 to integrate TV and computers in a way that was
pretty ahead of its time.
It was essentially a personal computer that could be switched between computing functions
to a cable television display.
Users could watch TV in a desktop window, and it came with a small remote that controlled
the TV functions from afar.
While it was a pretty novel idea, the Macintosh TV cost over $2,000, almost $3,500 today adjusting
for inflation, and only about 10,000 models were ever produced.
It was discontinued the following year in 1994 and Apple wouldn’t attempt to integrate
TV and computing in quite the same way for another twelve years.
Now, the Apple TV that we’re all familiar with today was officially introduced in 2006
by Steve Jobs.
It was initially referred to as “iTV”, which used Apple’s traditional ‘i’ moniker,
and was going to be Apple’s first big foray into the home entertainment market.
But things got off to a rocky start, because before the product was even launched, Apple
was faced with some legal trouble.
The name iTV was already copyrighted by a British broadcasting network who refused to
give it up.
They threatened legal action against the tech company and Apple changed the name before
its 2007 release.
This came as a surprise to many, considering Apples tendency to fiercely defend logos,
names, and trademarks, but Apple yielded without putting up a fight and Apple TV began shipping
to customers on March 21, 2007.
The very first generation of Apple TV wasn’t really anything ground breaking.
The device was a small, HDMI equipped set top box that you could connect to your TV
and play video, music, podcasts, or display photos from your computer.
It ran Apple TV Software 1.0, featured a Pentium M 1 GHz core processor, and came with a 40
GB hard drive.
It displayed Apples FrontRow interface, borrowed from Mac OS X, which allowed users to change
settings, select media, and change input sources.
But in order to load content onto the Apple TV, you had to use a computer with iTunes
to transfer your files, and it could only be controlled using the Apple Remote.
Basically, any computer in your household could be hooked up to the device, run through
the FrontRow interface, and used to watch videos or play audio from a TV.
Luckily, a software update wasn’t far behind which allowed the Apple TV to be used as a
stand-alone device.
Updates also did away with FrontRow and replaced it with a more user-friendly interface.
The 2.0 release in 2008 introduced an option for streaming YouTube videos, and the 3.0
update in 2009 gave a general “internet” option to connect to a browser.
This final first-gen update also included new features, like iTunes extras, internet
radio, and customization tools like content filters and font selections.
Apple also offered an “Apple Remote” app for iPhone so that users could control the
Apple TV from their phone, without the need for an extra remote.
Now, this first-generation release was a little bit clunky and not all that popular.
Video streaming wasn’t a big market yet, so Apple TV wasn’t in very high demand at
the time.
And this seemed like a strange deviation from Apples traditional product strategy, since
they were known for taking popular concepts, simplifying them, and releasing them in a
user-friendly package.
It was an early-adopter kind of device, and its price of $299 really didn’t justify
its functionality to most users outside of hobbyists.
In fact, Jobs himself described Apple TV as a “hobby” a number of times – even as
Apple was trying to figure out how to carve a niche in the television market.
In the following few years, the legacy TV industry preemptively punched back at products
like Apple TV and other set-top devices like Roku and TiVo, by providing set-top boxes
for customers for free or subsidized with their contracts.
And that meant the market for Apple TV got even smaller.
Nonetheless, things started to look up a little bit for Apple TV by its second-generation
release.
This updated model came out in September 2010 and stayed around for two years.
It featured a sharp new design that was smaller, shinier and black rather than silver.
It also had flash drive storage and upgraded WiFi capabilities.
But the most important change to the second gen Apple TV was its price.
Apple slashed the cost from $299 to just $99, and that alone made the Apple TV a much more
attractive option for potential customers.
Another major change for this release was the operating system – Apple TV no longer
ran a version of OS X, but rather a version of iOS.
And perhaps the biggest change had little to do with the Apple TV itself – because
streaming video services had now become popular.
Netflix’s online streaming service had just blown up in popularity, and the second-generation
Apple TV allowed users to play video not only from iTunes, but from the Netflix streaming
service as well.
Subsequent updates integrated even more outside streaming and viewing options, including Vimeo,
Flickr, and MLB TV.
Next came the third generation in March of 2012.
This release wasn’t dramatically different from the second generation – it still featured
an 8 GB flash drive, HDMI and USB ports, and an Apple A5 processor.
But it improved on its predecessor’s WiFi capability and video streaming quality, this
time bumping up to 1080p.
Its size, weight, design, and price remained the same for the next three years.
But in March 2015, the Apple TVs price dropped to just $69 – which may have been a response
to the low price of other set top boxes on the market.
Although the second and third generation Apple TVs were a vast improvement on the first generation,
they were still little more than “hobbies”.
They were locked down with a set of apps that couldn’t be changed, and while Netflix,
Hulu, Youtube, and Amazon Video covered quite a bit of the market, there was no reason for
most people to buy a device they couldn’t really customize.
Also, competitors like Roku and Google had far more reliable, affordable, and customizable
devices that were taking over the market.
In 2014, a survey showed that Apple TV had only taken 17% of the set top box market share
– losing out big time to Google’s Chromecast.
But Apple wasn’t giving up.
On October 30th, 2015, the company released the fourth generation Apple TV.
This one came with its own dedicated operating system, called tvOS.
And although tvOS wasn’t supported on earlier generations of Apple TV, the new release was
worth the upgrade for most.
It featured a 1.5 GHz dual core Apple A8 processor, Bluetooth 4.0 support, HDMI 1.4, and 32 or
64 GB of flash storage, compared to 8 GB in the previous models.
And although it was a little bit taller, the fourth gen Apple TV maintained the sleek and
attractive design of the second and third generation.
This model also introduced voice recognition with Siri and a new remote that included a
touchpad for easier navigation and was able to control the actual television set, as well
as the Apple TV itself.
But the biggest addition to the fourth generation model was the App Store.
And this meant the Apple TV was now a gaming console.
Apple was never very competitive in the gaming world, with PC and other console manufacturers
taking the lions share of the gaming market for decades.But with the rise of casual and
mobile gaming and the ever-increasing popularity of the App Store, Apple TV offered a new and
exciting opportunity to expand the market for Apple gaming.
The introduction of tvOS, as well as a new software development kit, allowed third-party
developers to design and release apps and games specifically for the platform.
But the fourth generation Apple TV came with a few drawbacks.
Its limited storage space proved to be a challenge for game developers who, due to a feature
called “App Thinning”, had to limit app sizes and download content in segments, instead
of all at once.
In addition to trouble with data loss in apps, the price of this generation shot up for the
first time, from $69 to $149 for 32 GB.
Now, around this time in 2016, Apple also released something called the TV App.
This app was designed for tvOS, but also ran on iOS devices like the iPhone.
It offered a replacement for some of the previous interfaces Apple TV offered and came pre-installed
with tvOS 10.1 and later.
It offered a way for users to not only access their own media library, but streaming content
from apps and the App Store as well.
It was another important feature to fully integrate apps into the Apple TV system.
At this point, Apple no longer released sales figures for the Apple TV, and many speculated
that it wasn’t doing too well.
But despite sales numbers, another generation was released in September 2017.
The fifth generation, or Apple TV 4K as it was named, featured even better hardware than
before, including a 2.38 GHz hexa-core Apple A10X Fusion processor, a 13-watt power supply,
and a brand new update for tvOS.
It was the same size and weight as the fourth generation, but did away with the USB-C port,
leaving only an HDMI input and output.
Although its price rose once again from $149 to $179 for 32 GB and $199 for 64 GB, this
model also featured 4K video support, HDR10, Gigabit ethernet, Bluetooth 5.0, support for
Dolby Vision, and automatic 4K video scaling.
Now there was quite a bit of controversy surrounding the Apple TV remote included with the fourth
and fifth generation models.
It featured much more advanced technology than the previous remote making it much more
expensive to replace if it was ever lost or broken.
Replacing the remote costs $59, which is three times more than the previous $19 Apple remote
included with earlier generations of Apple TVs.
And the new remote has turned out to be much less durable since the glass trackpad is prone
to cracking when dropped.
But Apple is known for sacrificing affordability and durability for great design and user experience.
So the Apple TV may never take control of the market or become an iconic Apple product.
But there is some speculation about whether or not Apple will ever step up and tackle
the problem of the actual TV set.
In his official biography, Steve Jobs spoke about revolutionizing the television, changing
it the way Apple has changed phones, tablets, and desktop computers.
He said that he wanted to create a TV that integrated with all a user’s devices – free
from messy cables and set-top boxes completely.
But Apple has yet to fulfill this vision and many in the tech industry don’t think it
would be possible to achieve anyway.
For now, it seems like Apple will leave actual televisions to their manufacturers and stick
to innovation in other areas of the market.
So, today, there are three Apple TV models available.
The Apple TV fourth generation is available only in a 32 GB model, and boasts 1080p video
streaming, photo viewing, and an app marketplace.
The Apple TV 4K is available in both a 32 GB and 64 GB model and features support for
4K, better performance, and support for Dolby Atmos.
So that is the history of the Apple TV, and if you want to vote for the next video topic,
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Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you next time.