Today is the day: tech giant Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is holding its much-hyped keynote event at the brand-new Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino, California. It is the first-ever event at the theater, which is located at the company’s corporate headquarters and dedicated to Apple’s late co-founder.
Heading into today, Apple shares were up nearly 37% so far this year. The company has proven to be one of Wall Street’s hottest tech stocks, at least partially thanks to the anticipation surrounding Apple’s new line of hardware announced today.
Apple is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) and sports “B” grades for Value and Momentum in our Style Scores system. The next few days should prove to be a telling period for the stock, as investors and analysts will likely attempt to gauge the consumer market’s reaction to today’s announcements.
Apple TV
Prior to today’s official announcement, we had heard that Apple was clashing with prominent Hollywood studios over the pricing of 4K content. According to several media reports, Apple wanted to charge $20 for ultra-high-definition movies on its new Apple TV device, while the studios it was negotiating with wanted the company to charge more.
Today, Apple officially announced Apple TV 4K, and the company’s Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue unveiled the new version of the iPhone maker’s television venture.
Two key technologies make this edition of Apple TV stand out from other cord cutting options: 4K and HDR, though these two technologies are not new, and are a combination that has been around for a while now. Apple has also redesigned the Apple TV user interface in 4K.
Apple went on to announce a new A10X processing chip with 2x CPU performance, as well as a new version of tvOS.
While looks certainly matter, better access to programming is key, and Apple appeared to deliver on this front. The company looks to be working with studios like 20th Century Fox (NASDAQ:FOXA) , Lionsgate, Paramount, Universal, Warner Brothers, and Sony Pictures (NYSE:SNE) , and is also working with Hollywood to get all of its 4K HDR content on iTunes.
Additionally, 4K movies will be the same price as HD movie in iTunes, and customers will receive an automatic upgrade to 4K if they bought HD movies.
Most notably, Apple announced that it is working with streaming leaders Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) and Amazon Prime (NASDAQ:AMZN) to bring its 4K titles to iTunes. And, the Amazon Prime Video app will be available “later this year” on Apple TV.
Another big announcement is the arrival of Live Sports and Live News to Apple TV. Users will even be able to turn the score feature off for certain games.
The Apple TV 4K starts at $179 for 32GB and $199 for 64GB, and customers can place their orders on September 15. Orders ship on September 22.
More Stock News: This Is Bigger than the iPhone!
It could become the mother of all technological revolutions. Apple sold a mere 1 billion iPhones in 10 years but a new breakthrough is expected to generate more than 27 billion devices in just 3 years, creating a $1.7 trillion market.
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