Now that Apple has tipped their new, dual-core A5 SoC as the central cortex of the iPad 2, it’s reasonable to expect that the chip will start creeping down the rest of the iOS line-up later this year. That means an A5-equipped iPhone 5 in June, followed by an A5-equipped iPod Touch in September.
But even though it doesn’t look like one, there’s one other member of the iOS family: the Apple TV. Can we expect Apple to update their set-top box offering as well?
9to5mac muses that it’s pretty likely, noting that one of the big failings of the current Apple TV is that it is limited to 720p output. Meanwhile, Steve Jobs himself made a big deal about how the A5-equipped iPad 2 can handle full HD 1080p output.
It’s an interesting thought. Of course, the A4 Apple TV can technically handle 1080p, as could even the iPhone 3GS, but obviously it did not perform quite up to Apple’s specifications. I imagine the Apple TV will indeed adopt the A5 SoC this September, but I suspect it will be done with little fanfare. The Apple TV still seems very obviously a hobby product on the part of Apple, and what it needs isn’t a faster chip: it’s more full-featured software.
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
