Apple TV vs. the new Apple TV (2012): what's changed?
The Apple TV might still be a hobby, and thus not the main event at Tim Cook's Apple presentation today, but Apple's participation in the living room has had its fair share of rumors, speculation and dreams.
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple's set-top box has been on a slow arc since the 2008 'take 2' relaunch, through the confused interim captured in NewTeeVee's 2009 'what is going on?' piece, to the cheaper second-generation unit that Jobs positioned as his hobby in 2010. By November 2011 the retail channel was telegraphing a refresh, with Amazon and Best Buy inventory moves read as signals a new model was imminent.
That signal landed today: at Tim Cook's presentation Apple confirmed a 2012 Apple TV at the same $99 price, now handling 1080p, shipping March 16 alongside iTunes 10.6's 1080p support, with a software update bringing the new interface back to existing second-gen boxes. It remains explicitly hobby-status, even as unconfirmed rumors keep pointing toward a fuller television play beyond the box.
First-order effects
- Buyers get a $99 1080p-capable Apple TV on March 16, while current second-gen owners get the redesigned interface free via software update — Apple is upgrading the install base rather than forcing a repurchase.
- Content partners move with the hardware: iTunes 10.6 enables 1080p purchases, and AllThingsD reports a Netflix arrangement with Apple plus an iCloud movie service whose studio coverage is shaped by HBO deals locking Fox and Universal out.
Second-order effects
- Rights holders are now the gatekeepers of what the $99 box can sell — HBO's exclusivity deals fragmenting the iCloud movie catalog show Apple's living-room ambition constrained by licensing rather than hardware.
- Rivals in the sub-$100 streaming box market face a price-matched, ecosystem-backed competitor, pushing differentiation toward content bundles and services rather than spec sheets.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds — cheap iterative hardware, expanding licensed content, hobby framing maintained — the box functions as a beachhead for the rumored full television offering, letting Apple build viewer habits and studio relationships before committing to a display product.
- The structure emerging across these cycles is one where the TV itself becomes commoditized glass and the contested layer is the software-plus-rights stack above it, with Apple, cable networks like HBO, and streamers like Netflix each trying to own that layer.
The trend: The living room is consolidating around low-cost streaming boxes tied to licensed-content ecosystems, with Apple iterating its hobby device as a hedge toward a larger television play.