We’ve all been focusing on games as the killer apps for a new Apple TV reveal tomorrow at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, but even regular apps could bring Apple the audience it wants as it tries to leapfrog competitors like Chromecast and Roku with features that the other guys just don’t have (yet).
While games do tend to drive a significant amount of revenue on the App Store and Google Play, it’s the hot apps like Periscope, Instagram, Vine, and other connected imagery apps that will translate well to the big TV in our living rooms.
While we only really know about Periscope’s secret Apple TV app at this time, and only via rumor, it makes sense that it and other apps development teams are hard at work under non-disclusure agreements to get their apps ready for the first time they’ll ever be available on Apple’s set-top box.
According to Techcrunch sources, Periscope will most likely focus on watching streams, much like the Periscope web app. Launched in January, Periscope moved to mobile in April. It has over 10 million users registered, and, according to Periscope’s own CEO, streams about 40 years of watch time each day. That’s a lot of video, and it’s a perfect match for an Apple TV-based app.
What else is a no-brainer? Do you want to browse Facebook on your HDTV? Maybe, depending on your addiction level, but it’s more likely that apps with a strong video and image focus will make the cut, especially at first. We can surely hope that Apple will show off these types of apps for Apple TV at the big event tomorrow, making an Apple TV even more of a must-have item for everyone.
Source: Techcrunch
Rob LeFebvre is an Anchorage, Alaska-based writer and editor who has contributed to various tech, gaming and iOS sites, including 148Apps, Creative Screenwriting, Shelf-Awareness, VentureBeat, and Paste Magazine. Feel free to find Rob on Twitter @roblef, and send him a cookie once in a while; he’ll really appreciate it.
2 responses to “Apple TV will transform television with Periscope and other apps”
Search and discovery are key. Make it easy for the user to find the photographic (and other images), audio, and video content I’m interested in–and to discover great new stuff–regardless of origin or source. Search should be unified–not just between Netflix and Hulu–but across all content. If I search the word “Corgi,” I should see results from YouTube, Flickr, the iTunes Store, Netflix, an app store … and Twitter/Periscope, Facebook/Instagram, Pinterest … etc. Let me tune these channels, and turn them on and off at will.
Yep.. that’s true! Periscope is coming on Apple TV. Imagine an Apple remote with a hearts button :)
For anyone who is interested to find periscope streams on their pc, there are websites such as http://www.onperikat.com who do that.