Apple will add App Store functionality to its new, miniature Apple TV in the near future.
The $99 device , which Apple announced on Sept. 1, is a close sibling of the iPad in its component composition and uses the same iOS 4.1 that runs on the iPhone , iPod Touch and iPad, two huge hints that Apple will sell apps to consumers, not just rent content to stream to TVs, said Brian Marshall of Gleacher & Co.
“I’m a little disappointed that an App Store didn’t make it into this first version, but it’ll come,” Marshall said. “Apps will give consumers a much more media-rich environment than simply consuming content.”
One easy bet in Marshall’s mind: Games to turn Apple TV into a de facto video game console.
Earlier on Wednesday, the iFixit site published photographs and a step-by-step description of its “teardown” of the new Apple TV, and found close similarities to other recent Apple hardware, notably the iPad.
The Apple TV relies on the same Apple -designed A4 application processor that powers the iPad, said iFixit, down to the 256GB of system memory integrated with the A4 in both the iPad and the fourth-generation iPod Touch. The iPhone 4 boasts 512MB of system memory.