Apple’s fours-generation Apple TV is getting a proper remote app described as a viable replacement for the bundled Siri Remote, John Paczkowski, Managing Editor with BuzzFeed News, wrote this morning.
In an interview with Eddy Cue, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services, Paczkowski learned that a much-improved remote app for the Apple TV 4 is currently in the works.
“We’re working on a new Apple TV remote app that will give you the full functionality of the Siri Remote on your iPhone,” Cue told Paczkowski. “We’re hoping to ship that in the first half of next year.”
Although Apple’s existing Remote application now at last supports the new Apple TV, it most definitely is not a full replacement for the Siri Remote.
The app’s rather basic implementation of the Siri Remote’s Touch surface works for navigating the entirety of the tvOS interface, but that’s about it.
The biggest omission: it doesn’t take advantage of the iPhone’s accelerometer and gyroscope sensors, which would let you play games with tilt-based controls using your iPhone rather than the Siri Remote.
Cue also noted that the App Store now has more than 2,000 tvOS apps for the new Apple TV, revealing that half of the Apple TV 4 purchases are upgrades, with the other half coming from new customers that are buying their first Apple TV.
“What we’re seeing with the new Apple TV is to me very similar to what happened with gaming on the iPhone,” he said.
“When we first announced the iPhone, we didn’t tout it as a gaming device. But games became a huge part of iPhone, because it turns out that a lot more people than just hardcore gamers love games. We expanded the market,” he noted.
To Cue, the new Apple TV isn’t a nice companion to people who already own dedicated gaming consoles rather than a full-on console replacement.
“I think the vast majority of people around the world probably aren’t looking to buy an Xbox or PlayStation. But that doesn’t mean they don’t enjoy playing games. I think Apple TV expands the gaming market to those people,” he said.
“Hardcore gaming isn’t exactly the ecosystem we’re after with Apple TV,” he said. “On the other hand, you will see some hardcore games come to the Apple TV platform.”
The device may not be aimed at hard-core console fans, but I think Apple will take on Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo within two or three years with a much more powerful Apple TV hardware.
Source: BuzzFeed News