On Tuesday Microsoft unveiled the next generation of its Xbox – the Xbox One. The One though isn't just a gaming system as the Xbox has long been – it's an "all-in-one" entertainment system.
The new console integrates with a cable box, will have streaming video
capabilities, and also original Xbox video content, including a Halo TV
series made by Steven Spielberg. It promises to loop your cable box
into the interactive Xbox experience, allowing you to channel surf via
voice control and video chat while watching TV and movies.
The Xbox One will face the gaming competition from the likes of Nintendo
and Sony when it comes out at the end of the year, but many have also
been pointing out another competitor that has long been rumored to focus
on cracking the living room tech problem: Apple.
"Steve Jobs' Dream Device Has Arrived, and It's Made by Microsoft" a headline on Slate reads. "Microsoft's new Xbox One is an Apple killer, the living room," Quartz wrote. "Did Microsoft Just Kick Apple Out of the Living Room?" Mashable asked.
Apple now sells Apple TV, a box which hooks up to a TV and allows users
to download movies and TV shows from iTunes as well as stream video
through services like Netflix and Hulu Plus. However, Apple has long
been rumored to be building a more advanced Apple TV product, one that
might actually be HDTV. It's the long-rumored iTV, as some have called
it.
In Walter Isaacson's "Steve Jobs," the Apple founder told Issacson of his plans to crack the TV space.
Isaacson quotes Jobs in the book: "'I'd like to create an integrated
television set that is completely easy to use,' he told me. 'It would be
seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud.' No longer
would users have to fiddle with complex remotes for DVD players and
cable channels. 'It will have the simplest user interface you could
imagine. I finally cracked it.'"
Microsoft's Xbox One has some of those simple interface features. You
can change the channel or navigate the interface by speaking aloud
through voice control software or simply wave your hand to move through
menus. You can also use a tablet or smartphone to control the interface
on the TV. Speculation about Apple TV has persisted for a long time, pointing to a
late 2013 or early 2014 release. "When I go into my living room and turn
on the TV, I feel like I have gone backwards in time by 20 to 30
years," Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, said in December. "It's an area of
intense interest. I can't say more than that."
Sure, Apple's future TV product is no more than rumors and illusions
right now, but still the technology industry is bubbling about what the
tech giant could do. "Apple is already in this space with media and
Apple TV. They already have the software hooks to extend to games on
Apple TV but I think they are struggling to get the experience where
they want it," Patrick Moorhead, an analyst at Moor Insights &
Strategy, told ABC News.
What Apple might have from the media and software end, it might lack in
the gaming realm against the big players like Microsoft, Sony and
Nintendo. However, analysts point to Apple's hugely popular gaming
devices out right now: the iPhone and iPad.
"Apple could have a real advantage here mainly because of their scale
and penetration," Brain Blau, Research Director of Consumer Technology
at Gartner, told ABC News. While Blau said he couldn't speculate too
much on what Apple would do in the game space, he did suggest some
natural extensions.
Apple,
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