When most companies add a new section to their website, few people notice. But most companies aren’t Apple.
On Monday night I was looking for something on the Apple Store website and discovered it was offline. “We’ll be back,” a banner on the site read. “We’re busy updating the Apple Store for you and will be back soon.” Chalking it up to a maintenance upgrade, I decided to check back an hour later. Yet when I did, the site was still closed for business.
Jokingly, I tweeted that the Apple Store was down either for a new product update or because “a Google robot unplugged it as a practical joke.”
It turns out it was partially the former. (At least as far as I can tell.)
When the site finally came back online, Apple had given the store some fancy design upgrades and some Valentine’s Day specials. But more important, Apple had created an entirely new section for Apple TV in the store.
Before the changes to the site, Apple TV had been a stepchild to other gadgets, placed in a subcategory in the iPod section of the site. Now it has graduated to being placed in its own category alongside the iPad, iPod, iPhone and Macs.
In 2007, Steven P. Jobs, then Apple’s chief executive, introduced Apple TV and compared Apple’s product categories with legs on a stool, with the iPhone, iPod and Mac each representing a separate leg. At the time Mr. Jobs said he hoped that “maybe one day Apple TV will be the fourth leg.”
With the category update on the site, it looks as if that may be happening.
Mark Gruman from the Apple blog 9to5mac has reported that Apple is expected to implement major changes to Apple TV in the coming months, including adding apps to the device similar to those available for the iPad and iPhone. The Apple TV hardware could be getting an upgrade too, doubling as a wireless router.
During the company’s earnings call on Monday, Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray, tried to ask Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, about future developments with the Apple TV, but Mr. Cook refused to elaborate on the device’s future, saying only that “we believe in innovation.”
A recent report by Ben Reitzes, an analyst with Barclays, noted that Apple should add a new Apple TV to its product lineup as the connected TV is a growing market.
While it’s unclear when the company plans to show its latest innovation for the Apple TV, giving the device its own section in the Apple Store is a giant billboard that something big should be coming soon.
via apple - Google News http://ift.tt/1d7CKDr
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