I was really confused when Apple launched the new AppleTV. It clearly ran iOS and yet there was no way to add apps to it. Apps in my opinion was what was needed to break the link between AppleTV and iTunes, a link which was keeping AppleTV from becoming a really interesting product. But without apps AppleTV is just a conduit to the iTunes store and the iTunes video and movie store just doesn’t have enough interesting content. I wrote that Apple had blown a major opportunity. I may have been wrong!
This week the developers’ beta of iOS 4.2 was released to devs and it included the first chance for the world outside Apple to have a play with AirPlay. The idea behind AirPlay is that you can play any video or audio only source material on your mac, iPhone, iPodTouch or iPad and stream it to another Apple device. At the time it was announced it struck me as a big yawn. I may have been wrong.
It now looks like AirPlay is an API and not just technology to allow someone to play an iTunes movie on their AppleTV by streaming it from their iPhone. An API is a link between a technology in the operating system itself to apps made by Apple or 3rd party developers. What this means, if it turns out to be correct is that Apple has indeed opened up AppleTV so that its not just an iTunes conduit.
Here’s how it might work. Let’s say a company, BBC for instance, has a player designed for the iPad, like iPlayer (sorry, only for us UK folk). So you launch iPlayer on your iPad and you see something you want to watch, lets say the rerun of the Formula 1 race in Monza. You start it on iPlayer and there’s a little “AirPlay” button in iPlayer which you tap and it asks you which device you want to AirPlay to. I click on AppleTV and suddenly I’m watching Formula 1 on my tellie via my iPad linked to my AppleTV.
Or maybe I buy the Hulu app for my iPad and start watching an HBO programme. I click the AirPlay button and voila, i’m watching Hulu on my tellie.
So in effect AirPlay makes AppleTV an open environment capable of playing any content originating from anyone providing they’ve added AirPlay to their iPad, iPhone, iPodTouch or Mac app.
It means that your iPhone or iPodTouch or iPad becomes both a source for streaming content to your AppleTV and a fantastic remote control. If it turns out that AirPlay does allow 3rd party apps to make use of it then Apple will soon be ushering in a new dimension for tellie which may just be able to disrupt the now destabilising cable and satellite markets.
