Did Apple pick the right or wrong time for new Apple TV?
Apple has a big event planned for Wednesday in San Francisco and, according to numerous reports, the headliner will be a new, more powerful fourth-generation Apple TV streaming media device.
In the past, Apple has waited until consumer technologies like digital music (the iPod) and smartphones (the iPhone) were ready to make the jump from early tech enthusiasts to a wider audience of mainstream consumers.
An Adobe study released Friday suggests the new Apple TV could be the device that pushes connected TV viewing past the “chasm” between “early adopters and early mainstream,” said Tamara Gaffney, principal analyst and director of the Adobe Digital Index, the research arm of software maker Adobe Systems.
Gaffney’s unit examined pay TV industry data on how viewers watch programs on devices other than from a standard cable or satellite box.
The Adobe Digital team examined programs that fall under an industry-wide category called “TV Everywhere,” meaning shows authorized by subscription TV providers for viewing on other devices.
Younger viewers are also leading the trend of cord-cutting — customers who are scaling back or canceling regular pay TV services in favor of online-only entertainment alternatives like Sling TV, YouTube and Twitch.
In results that bode well for Apple, Adobe found the use of the existing Apple TV models increased by 10 percent this year, while competing devices like the Roku, Amazon Fire and gaming consoles became stagnant.
The new model is rumored to include a far more powerful processor to run apps and video games.
The new Apple TV will challenge Nvidia’s Shield, a consumer-oriented video streaming and game device the Santa Clara graphics chip maker introduced earlier this year.
More than a decade ago, Apple helped the music industry finally embrace the digital era with the iTunes Music Store, which sold downloadable songs and albums.
[...] with online video, Netflix, Hulu and Amazon have already sold consumers on the idea that their entertainment can be rented through a monthly subscription and doesn’t have to be owned as it is with iTunes.