New Apple TV Release Date Arriving Next Week

While Apple CEO Tim Cook has said in the past that the Apple TV release date will arrive later this month, the head honcho confirmed again that the release is still on track and will launch next week.

The new Apple TV was announced and unveiled last month during the company’s iPhone 6s event, and it’s quite the overhaul over the Apple TV 3, coming with all sorts of new features, like an all-new remote with a built-in trackpad, Siri integration, gaming support, and its very own Apple TV App Store where users will be able to download and install third-party apps on the device.

Furthermore, there are a lot more details about the set-top box that Apple discussed, as well as found out further down the road as developers got their hands on test kits, so we pretty much know everything about the streaming box except for the release date, which was still unknown before today, as we’ve only heard that the Apple TV will release later this month.

However, it seems that Apple is still on track for that timeline, as Tim Cook provided more details about the new Apple TV release date during WSJD Live.

The new Apple TV will begin shipping to customers at some point by the end of next week, with orders officially starting on October 26.

Unfortunately, that’s all the details that Cook provided and there are still some details that consumers are probably anxious about. For instance, in-store availability wasn’t discussed, so we’re not sure if October 26 is just for essentially pre-ordering the streaming box and then you could buy it in-store later that week when it begins shipping. That’s still up in the air it looks like.

Recent rumors have suggested that in-store availability for the new Apple TV will arrive early next month, meaning sometime in early November as for when buyers will be able to purchase a new Apple TV in Apple Stores.

Back in March, Apple significantly dropped the price of the Apple TV 3 down to just $69 ($59 for a refurbished unit). While this wasn’t a huge hint that Apple may have been working on a new Apple TV, it was at least a small hint that it could have been happening, but many of us at the time simply thought it was Apple’s quick way to compete with the market, where streaming boxes were getting cheaper and cheaper by the minute.

The Apple TV hasn’t been touched since 2012, and even then Apple barely updated the streaming box. However, the Apple TV is back and better than ever, with a ton of new features in order to compete with a growing market.

One of the big new features on the new Apple TV is gaming support, where the set-top box also acts as a casual gaming console of sorts, allowing users to play all sorts of games, using the remote as a controller. Granted, the games aren’t AAA titles with intense graphics, but more along the lines of Nintendo Wii game style, where the whole family can join in.

The only downside with the new streaming box is the price. While the Apple TV 3 only costs $69, the new Apple TV will start at a whopping $149 and will come with 32GB of storage. Users can go for a 64GB model, though, costing $199. This will make the new Apple TV one of the most expensive set-top boxes on the market, but Apple looks to make up for it through all of the cool new features that the box will offer.