Vizio today announced that its recent smart TVs will gain support for Apple's wireless streaming protocol AirPlay 2 and smart home platform HomeKit via a free SmartCast 3.0 over-the-air software update later this year.
AirPlay 2 support will allow users to stream videos, music, photos, and more directly from an iPhone, iPad, and Mac to SmartCast-enabled Vizio TVs, complete with lock screen controls. HomeKit support will enable users to easily control the TV using the Home app on iPhone, iPad, and Mac or Siri voice commands.
Vizio says the SmartCast 3.0 update with AirPlay 2 and HomeKit can be tested by registered beta members in the United States and Canada in the first quarter of 2019. The software will be publicly released in the second quarter of 2019 and will also be preinstalled on Vizio's entire 2019 lineup of smart TVs.
The upcoming SmartCast 3.0 update will also add expanded Google Assistant actions for eligible SmartCast TVs. Google Assistant users, for example, will have the ability to use simple voice commands to launch apps, select inputs as well as pause, resume, stop, fast-forward, rewind content, and more.
Amazon Alexa users can also control their TV, and coming later this year, launch apps without lifting a finger, according to Vizio.
Apple recently updated its website with information about how AirPlay 2 and HomeKit will be implemented on smart TVs from "leading TV manufacturers," including Samsung, which is also introducing an iTunes movies and TV shows app that does not appear will be available on Vizio smart TVs at this time.
Top Rated Comments
[doublepost=1546872397][/doublepost]Agreed. It is a very smart move on their part. People are not upgrading hardware like they did 2 years ago.
Looking at this from a more three dimensional perspective, it opens up a huge opportunity for Apple’s screenless or small screen devices like HomePod and Apple Watch.
If a HomePod can count on having an AirPlay enabled TV nearby, it suddenly becomes a full voice controlled home computer. Remember the A8 chip inside the HomePod? That’s a very powerful chip for something just intent on being a speaker, even a smart one. “Hey Siri, show me my appointments for this week”, HomePod looks for the nearest TV “Would you like me to display it on the Living Room TV”?
Apple Watch itself has the potential to displace iPhone as our main personal computer. As it increases in power and as Siri gets better at recognizing your speech and what you mean using machine learning, it can be a voice first personal assistant on your wrist that can do almost anything that an iPhone can do. Only almost because there are things that require a large sceen to do effectively, such as watching videos or displaying pictures. What if you could count on there always being an AirPlay enabled screen nearby? Well, Apple is making that exact move today.
Recognizing that the iPhone market would eventually slow down, Apple began a major move into services a few years back. When Services was already in the billions in terms of revenue, (and it has been for over two years the fastest growing part of its business,) Apple announced a goal of turning Services into a major component. Apple has been so quietly successful in that goal in the Services arena that folks don't realize that Apple's Service revenue now dwarfs ALL of Facebook's revenue!
Apple's Service revenue now hits a record quarter after quarter and is now over 10 BILLION dollars a quarter, well on pace to smash Cook's goal of $50 BILLION dollars a year in Services revenue by 2020. Indeed, Apple Services, by itself, is now one of the largest tech companies in the world!
While Apple is far beyond the slowly transitioning into Services, it would also be a mistake to assume that Apple is "becoming a services company." Apple will continue to grow it's hardware business and with the tens of billions of dollars Apple is investing into R and D, hardware has a huge upside to be a major driver, if not the major driver, of revenue going forward.