There are reports today that Apple is in talks with cable companies to offer viewers an Apple set-top box.
Apple updated its poor-selling Apple TV set-top box, iPod Touch music player and the iPhone, and built out Apple's lineup of notebook computers with a new, lightweight laptop.
As I noted earlier, Apple (AAPL) this morning said that this week it will top the 1 million unit mark for sales of its new generation Apple TV set-top box.
By the end of the first quarter, Apple is expected to release the next iteration of its Apple TV set-top box.
That process is already possible through its Apple TV set-top box, but it is cumbersome and some media companies, such as Time Warner Inc.
Meanwhile, the Apple TV set-top box and widescreen iPod Touch have begun nibbling at the edges of the television market, long dominated by Japanese brands.
Since the iPhone and iPad can wirelessly stream content to a TV attached to an Apple TV set-top box, why not extend this capability, muses Barclays analyst Ben Reitzes.
FORBES: Forget About An Apple TV, A Remote Control Is Where It's At
Another person familiar with the talks said the types of new services Apple and the media companies are discussing could be done with Apple's existing technologies, which include its Apple TV set-top box.
If so, they could easily follow Apple into the set-top box business, if not a full television.
Apple is in talks with some of the largest U.S. cable operators about letting consumers use an Apple device as a set-top box for live TV.
This would be for a full on Apple TV, rather than a set-top box.
Gabe Gagliano predicts a March reboot of the Apple TV box-top set.
In April, the company expanded its product line by adding Xiaomi TV, a set-top box similar to Apple TV.
FORBES: New Midas Lister Hans Tung On The Next Big Idea In China After Xiaomi
About three months after it started selling a new version of the set-top box last year, Apple said it had sold more than a million but hasn't provided sales figures since.
If you do that, you can move your set-top box back to where my Apple TV now sits.
Apple has been in talks with cable companies about a set-top box for watching television for years, only making some progress recently.
Users will be able to watch the Freewire service on their PC, laptop or Apple Mac as well as through televisions with the help of a set-top box.
So lately it seems to be veering toward developing a set-top box, a sort of souped-up Apple TV device, that could be used with existing TVs.
Rather than focusing on geeky products for techies -- such as the Xserver and Mac Pro -- Del Prete says he's betting Steve Jobs will show off consumer-friendly products such as a freshened iPhone and a new version of the Apple TV set top box next week.
While there have been a wide variety of entrants into the OTT set-top box market, to date the category has been dominated by two players: Apple TV and Roku.
应用推荐