After waiting three long years for the current fourth-generation
This revelation, if true, will not go down well with people who’ve only just invested in a fourth-generation Apple TV box in the reasonable expectation that Apple had used the three years it took to develop that box to make something that was at least reasonably future proof.
The leak about the fifth-gen Apple TV is reported by Digitimes, which claims it received the information from Taiwanese sources in the device’s supply chain.
As well as the startlingly imminent production timing information, the leak provides a few other tidbits concerning the new Apple TV’s specification. For instance, it suggests that the fifth-gen Apple TV is going to use a new, more powerful CPU to ‘dramatically improve the device’s hardware performance’. This CPU’s power will apparently mean, too, that Apple is having to introduce some sort of heat dissipation system to Apple TV for the first time. Hopefully this will not just be noisy cooling fans!
More than just a media streamer?
Also, intriguingly, the claimed leak suggests that the fifth-generation Apple TV box will carry new functions ‘to help it no longer serve only as a set top box’. This could mean any number of things, of course; maybe it’s going to move closer to becoming the serious gaming console some had hoped the fourth generation box would be. Or maybe it’s to do with Apple’s HomeKit automated home functionality which, as I discussed last week, is finally starting to give birth to some actual supporting products.
Given that the Apple TV is looking increasingly isolated among its media streaming device peers in not supporting 4K/UHD video streaming, it’s disappointing to find the leaked information making no specific mention of the higher-resolution video format. I guess if you’re feeling really optimistic you might see the more powerful CPU as potentially having the grunt to handle 4K, but it would have been nice to have seen some supporting information about, say, Apple TV 5’s HDMI connectivity.
Pinch of salt required
Tantalising though the leaked specification information may sound, of course, it is in truth still open-ended enough to encompass almost any features a future Apple TV might have without the source of the leak losing credibility. In other words, the information is vague enough to make it potentially something somebody just dreamed up after a few too many glasses of sorghum wine - and Digitimes doesn’t have a spotless record when it comes to the leaks it reports turning out to be 100% reliable. Only time will tell how accurate the leak will turn out to be.
It’s also true that even if the leaks are correct and we do see a new Apple TV emerging potentially as early as next summer, it is increasingly common for all sorts of modern consumer electronics products to be upgraded annually. In fact, Apple itself has been known to leave barely six months between product generations in other areas of its business.
However, Apple hasn’t generally received favourable notices when it’s done such quick change acts before (a summer launch in 2016 would only put about nine months between the generation four and five Apple TVs). Also, the brand’s history of relatively long gestation periods between previous Apple TV generations would have had buyers of the current box expecting at least a couple of years of use from their new purchase before the goalposts were moved again.
For my thoughts on why the current Apple TV not having 4K UHD video support matters, click here.
For my two-part review of the latest Apple TV click here for 10 Reasons You Should Buy one, and here for 10 Reasons You Shouldn’t.
