Apple to launch new Apple TV set top box at WWDC with A8 chip, increased storage, enabling App Store, Siri, and HomeKit integration
New Apple TV Set Top Will Debut This Summer With App Store, Siri — Apple intends to show the device off at its annual World Wide Developers Conference in June
Context & Ripple Effects
BuzzFeed's sourcing puts a long-stalled product back in motion: a new Apple TV built around the A8 chip, pitched not as a hobby box but as a platform — App Store, Siri, and HomeKit all riding on increased storage. The follow-on coverage shows the plan shifting shape rather than dying: the debut slipped from a June WWDC showcase to the September iPhone event, where the box would arrive with an SDK, Siri support, and a touch remote.
The rest of the arc fills in what 'platform' means in practice — the device running a TV-optimized version of iOS 9, shipping at a $149 starting price with universal search across services, and eventually a 4K-capable successor with a TV app surfacing live programming two years later. The March report is the hinge where Apple TV stops being a streaming accessory and starts being an iOS-class computer for the living room.
First-order effects
- Developers get a new target: an App Store plus SDK on the television turns every iOS team into a potential TV app publisher overnight, with the A8 chip and added storage doing the heavy lifting.
- HomeKit integration makes the set-top box Apple's always-on living-room hub, putting Siri voice control at the center of its smart-home play.
Second-order effects
- A $149 price point with universal search pressures rival streaming boxes on aggregation rather than hardware specs — whoever indexes content across services controls discovery, and Apple is claiming that layer.
- Moving the launch from WWDC to the September iPhone/iPad event bundles the Apple TV into Apple's biggest shopping-cycle moment, trading developer-first messaging for consumer-scale distribution.
Third-order effects
- If the cadence holds — the reported 4K-capable follow-up with a live-TV-aware TV app suggests it does — Apple TV consolidates into an annually refreshed platform where apps, voice, and content discovery matter more than video formats.
- An SDK-gated living room extends the App Store's gatekeeper economics to television, making Apple the toll collector for a third screen category.
The trend: Set-top boxes are turning from single-purpose streamers into app platforms governed by mobile operating systems and their storefronts, with Apple's iOS-core Apple TV the clearest data point.