[chucker]

On the one hand, the Apple TV is frankly overpowered already for what it does, and doesn't really need an update for that.

On the other hand, for what it does, it's too pricey, too overengineered, too big. Kind of like a HomePod but not even with sound quality that beats the competition. A $69 HDMI stick from Apple would do, but that's probably not even a market they care about. (If they do that, why don't I just get a Fire stick if it runs Apple TV-the-app anyway? Or a TV that has all that and AirPlay built right in?) The moment they decided to offer that to third parties, they made the inevitable official: Apple will never compete in low-cost (stick) or zero-cost (comes with the smart TV).

So, failing that, the question becomes, can they make it a proper premium product?

(In part: Apple Arcade. Hasn't really caught the world by storm, though.)

Video conferencing, with the iSight making a comeback, does sound like such a use case, and I do agree they missed an opportunity on that this year. (Their long pipeline is really biting them in the butt in these pandemic times.) But, again, even on the software side, their hearts don't seem entirely in the idea of "can we do Zoom, but better, and home-focused".