The next-generation Apple TV, which will be released to the market later in 2015, will include a host of new features, but 4K video capability is apparently not one of them.
The information was reported by BuzzFeed News, which also previously reported that the new Apple TV device will debut at the upcoming annual Word Wide Developers Conference to be held in June.
Apple is also then expected to unveil a new Apple TV App Store, in addition to a developer kit so that programmers will be able to create apps for the new Apple TV.
Sources familiar with the matter have revealed to BuzzFeed News that the 4th generation Apple TV will initially not support 4K video, which is a newer form of high-definition video resolution.
"4K is great, but it's still in its infancy," said one of BuzzFeed News' sources.
If the reports are true, the decision of Apple for the new Apple TV to not support 4K video could be a good one for the company, despite the claims that the A8 chip currently used in Apple's iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus is capable of 4K video. This is because there simply is not much content out there yet for 4K video.
While it is true that both Amazon and Netflix have included 4K video streaming to their lineup of services in 2014, the content offerings are still limited. In addition, not a lot of households own TVs that are capable of 4K video.
The economics surrounding 4K video streaming is also currently not good, as delivering such content at scale is not at all cheap. 4K video features at least four times more pixels compared to traditional HD video, streaming it needs a significant amount of bandwidth and more advanced compression systems, along with high-speed broadband connectivity for consumers.
Today, the number of households that are capable of properly receiving 4K video streaming is not high, with the latest State of the Internet Report by Akamai showing that only 19 percent of all connections in the United States at speeds of 15Mbps or above, which is the speed that is required to properly stream 4K video.
"The additional cost to shoot, store, encode and deliver video in 4K, when compared to HD, is huge," said Dan Rayburn, principal analyst at Frost & Sullivan.
Rayburn added that it will take many years before 4K video streaming is widely adopted due to the high cost associated with the service.
Given such limitations, it is easy to see why Apple would think of not including support for 4K video in the next Apple TV, as currently, adding the feature is just not worth all the effort.
Apple, which declined to comment on the matter, is also a company that rarely enters markets that are still in their infant stages such as 4K video, as seen in the company's delay of entry into the wearable technology market with their upcoming Apple Watch.
