September is here. For techies and a large percentage of the world’s smartphone owners, this means Apple’s annual announcement of the gadgets and goodies they will roll out over the rest of the year, most notably the latest version of the iPhone.
September 2017 marks ten years of the iPhone. Hard to believe, but yes - our attention spans have been collectively declining because of these devices in our hands that we can’t stop looking at. To wit, Cisco says that live video will grow 15x and that wireless and mobile traffic will account for 64% of all internet traffic by 2021.
So today was like a pre-announcement of Christmas. Is it iPhone X? iPhone Ten? According to Apple, it is spelled like the former, spoken like the latter. More on that later.
First up for us video-centric folks is the new Apple TV 4K. Inside the new device are support for two key technologies, high dynamic range (HDR 10) and Dolby Vision. The demos showed some really gorgeous visuals and dynamic colors. Keep in mind though that the monitor you view your video on must have the resolution (and pixels) required to represent this jump in quality. I could bore you with all the technical details and tell you how powerful this gadget is, but the long and short of it is that the device is faster and capable of delivering the best video experiences possible today. Brightcove will be able to help you support these exciting video experiences with our products.
Even if you’ve been on the sidelines of the 4K hype, Apple delivered some good news for existing customers who have purchased iTunes movies. All your movies will be upgraded to 4K at no charge. I think it is particularly good that Apple isn’t charging more for 4K content than they do for HD. Netflix and Amazon Prime viewers are covered too, with their 4K content coming to the device this year. Also worth noting is that live sports and news will be front and center on the device, bringing those experiences to the forefront in the UI for viewers.
And of course the star of the show was the iPhone. There were updates and additions to the ‘traditional’ line, with more pixels in their retina displays and better speakers to improve the mobile viewing experience. The new iPhone X is an impressive new addition to the line. While not physically capable of playing in the 4K sandbox, the device will surely help deliver gorgeous video experiences.
Last, but not least in the visual realm, Apple also provided more detail on their tools and the phone’s support for augmented reality,called AR and AR Kit. These are tools for creating experiences like Pokemon Go. Expect these to be a big market mover for Apple and its devices. I expect big things in this area next year.
So our September technology Christmas has come and gone, but expect to see great video experiences in iOS devices and platforms as the year plays out.
