There has been a bit of talk on potential new Apple “Brick”. More than one blogger suggesting that Apple might be planning a new low-cost desktop; something that would knock some of the stuffing out of the low-cost Hackintosh products that have been hitting the market. I disagree with this theory, and am thinking more along the lines of the Gigaom projection, for the simple reason that there is already a Mac Mini – there is no place for a lighter Mac desktop; and any performance boost that they could give the Mac Mini wouldn’t really constitute a new product. I think Apple’s new product will be an affordable, mid-spec home theater PC (HTPC) for masses, that will replace the lackluster Apple TV.

For practical reasons, I could see Apple producing a scaled down Mac Book – a web book for Apple users would probably see good sales – but it is still not what I would consider to be a dramatic new product. What I am expecting is something a little different, something that brings Apple to the TV in the way that Apple TV just could not manage – a fully blown HTPC (running OS/X of course).

Let’s face it, Apple TV is little more than a set-top box, it wouldn’t be difficult to improve upon its functionality. If Apple has been great at anything, it has been great at integrating its devices; and there is a functional void in the market. Name one great purpose-built HTPC on the market that regular folks can afford. It is a market that is just waiting to be cracked.

Form

An Apple HTPC would need a larger form factor than the Apple TV as it would need the dimensions to blend with audio-visual components; the same length, width and depth as the typical Blu-ray HDD units that are fast becoming the rage in Japan; larger than a standard DVD player, but not imposing.

Function

If the Apple HTPC is to take off, it is going to have to be able to hold its ground both as a PC and an audio-visual device. Make no mistake; the balance would be heavily in favor of pushing audio-visual performance rather than floating point calculations. Still, expect a standalone device that can handle CPU-intensive tasks at moderate speeds. It has to be something that people can use for editing a home movie just as easily as they can play a downloaded movie or Blu-ray disc. It will also have to integrate painlessly with the home network and flawlessly with stalwart products like the iPod and iPhone.

Specifications

Considering the functionality that we would expect of an Apple HTPC, we can make a reasonably educated guess as to what specifications it is going to offer. I would expect many of the options (CPU speed, HDD capacity, optical drive and memory) to be in line with the next round of iMacs. An Apple HTPC would almost certainly be core2duo, with 2GB – 4GB of RAM. Hard disk capacity would probably start from 500GB, but could potentially be as low as 320GB; it would likely extend to 1TB, and possibly even 1.5TB.

While I think that Blu-ray could be an option for the iMac, it would definitely be an option for the Apple HTPC. A wouldn’t expect it to be exclusively Blu-ray as there needs to be room for a budget model. So expect Blu-ray to be a fairly reasonably priced option.

Where the Apple HTPC would likely separate itself from the iMac is with the video options. While offering PC functionality, this would be geared towards running on a high definition television (HDTV) rather than a monitor, just as it would be geared more heavily towards video-related functionality. With these considerations noted, a cable card reader is a given and a TV tuner is a must.

On the PC side, the Apple HTPC will offer seamless connectivity and content streaming over the home network, rather than Slingbox-style functionality. Apple does not skimp on their network interface cards, nor would they here.

Both sound and video are going to have to be at the higher end of what is commonly affordable. That means full 1080p video and at the very least 5.1-channel, but more likely 7.1-channel sound. This is not going to be audiophile-grade, but it won’t be too shabby either; it has to compete with Sony, Panasonic and other mainstream (but not budget) brands.

The sound and video demands that would be placed on an Apple HTPC and the equipment that it would be expected to integrate with means that HDMI is a must. I doubt that they would up the ante and offer more than one HDMI out – and component or S-Video outs in this day and age would just be silly. An HDMI-to-DVI dongle would probably come packaged.

Challenges

An Apple HTPC would face a wide array of challenges; not the least of which is a lukewarm market in the wake of the present financial crisis. People are still spending, but not as much on the non-essentials. It would be a tough sell, but the world probably is ready for it.

Another challenge would almost certainly be in some of the core components of the product. Region encoding and different cable card standards would mean that this would not be the one size fits all type of product that Apple favors. Still, their success with the iPhone has shown that they know how to handle a staggered, international rollout of technology.

Apple’s iPhone and iPod have made massive inroads for the brand, placing Apple products in the hands of people that might not otherwise have bought them. A reasonably-priced HTPC could take them one step further and put an Apple computer as opposed to an Apple media player or cellular phones into a great many homes.

Whether Apple opts for a fully-blown HTPC or not, it is virtually guaranteed that the next big Jobs will be aimed at the living room. At any rate, October 14 is D-Day and we will all probably be eating our hats come then.

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