Apple Reportedly Planning June Unveiling of New Apple TV

By Paula Bernier, Executive Editor, IP Communications Magazines

The blogosphere is buzzing over an Endgadget  report that Apple (News - Alert) is planning an upgrade of Apple TV  that involves dropping the price to just $99, and ditching the current set-top box form factor and instead relying on the cloud for storage and a smaller device at the customer premises.

According to the piece, the next-generation of Apple TV will mirror the look and technology used in the iPhone (News - Alert) 4, and include A4 CPU, 16GH flash storage and 1080p HD.

The news is expected to be unveiled at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference  June 7 through the 11 at the Moscone in San Francisco.

While one blogger  who also picked up the Endgadget piece writes about his distaste for the current Apple TV product, I love my Apple TV and believe it could've been a much bigger product for the company had it only been marketed in any real way.

At just above $200, I thought it was a bargain when I bought it several years ago. At a time that the telcos and cablecos were just talking about on-demand TV and three-screen strategies, Apple TV allowed my family to order movies (both standard- and high-definition) on demand, look at our photos on the TV, play our iTunes and burnt CDs via the TV - and control it all with either our Apple TV remote control, our MacBook Air, or our iPhones. We still use it all the time. And I'm excited that Apple finally appears poised to improve on what I think is already a fantastic product.

It should also be interesting to find out what relationship  the new Apple TV with have with Apple's new tablet computer, the iPad, which since its unveiling has been linked frequently by pundits to Apple's aspirations for Apple TV.

Of course, all the excitement around a potential new version of Apple TV comes in the wake of Google's (News - Alert) unveiling of Google TV, an announcement that initially created a lot of excitement, but just as much disappointment after the details were released.

(source: http://business-video.tmcnet.com/channels/online-video-platform-solutions/articles/86953-apple-reportedly-planning-june-unveiling-new-apple-tv.htm)