The first customers in New Zealand and Australia who have preordered the fourth-generation Apple TV are receiving their shipments, while Apple's retail stores in the U.S. and Europe started selling the company's newest media streaming device on Friday.
MacRumors reports that Apple customers who chose one-day shipping for the new Apple TV have begun receiving their orders early Friday morning in the two countries down under, while those who opted for regular shipping will receive their orders sometime between Monday, Nov. 2, and Wednesday, Nov. 4.
Meanwhile, the arrivals will start to expand further west to Europe and the U.S., just in time for the launch of the Apple TV in Apple Stores across the country, according to the report. Order statuses for customers who have preordered from Apple's website show that some shipments have already begun making their way out of the warehouse and into people's homes, indicating Apple is on schedule to deliver the new product to its customers.
The launch comes at right about the same time as Apple's rollout of the final version of tvOS to developers and users with review units. tvOS is Apple's new operating system for the Apple TV that comes with a built-in App Store where people can download various apps. It's the same version as the one that comes with the first commercial units.
Previously, early access users were able to access apps, but they could only do so by conducting a search, potentially missing out on apps they didn't know were available for the Apple TV. With the new App Store for Apple TV, Apple aims to do for television what it did for the smartphone with apps. Aside from the usual slew of streaming apps, such as Netflix, Hulu and YouTube, and mobile apps revamped for the Apple TV, such as Periscope and Airbnb, the App Store also features casual games made for the larger screen, including Rayman Adventures and SketchParty TV.
While customers may not find the Apple website and Apple stores running out of Apple TV stocks, there is at least one place where they can't purchase the Apple TV — or any other streaming device for that matter. Amazon is making good on its promise to pull out the Apple TV from its online shelves in its efforts to push Prime Video subscriptions and its own Fire TV stick to its customers. Other streaming devices, such as Google's new Chromecast, are also not available on Amazon.
