How will the next-generation Apple TV affect the console market?

The reports that the next-generation Apple TV will have a heavy focus on gaming were pretty surprising considering Apple’s long-standing aversion to the gaming market, but I suppose the iPhone’s accidental success as a gaming platform has opened the company’s eyes to potential money to be made in the market. Either way, this focus on gaming has led an analyst by the name of Rod Hall to predict that the Apple TV will help Apple carve out a nice little piece of the console market for itself, with 24 million units expected to be sold next year. Whether this will have an effect on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One sales remains to be seen, but 24 million is a really impressive number. 

A revamped Apple TV with its own App Store downloads could enter Apple into the $35-billion-per-year gaming market, adding an estimated 3.3 percent to the company’s 2016 earnings per share, J.P. Morgan believes. Analyst Rod Hall issued a note to investors on Tuesday giving his own expectations heading into Apple’s Wednesday event. In the note, a copy of which was provided to AppleInsider, Hall said he believes Apple could sell 24 million units of a revamped Apple TV in 2016, especially with new gaming support. When adding additional potential revenue from the sale of App Store content and an anticipated streaming TV service, he sees the device having a meaningful addition to Apple’s bottom line. In his estimates, every 5 percent share Apple can carve out of the $35 billion console gaming market would add about 2 percent to his annual earnings per share forecast. “We believe that the combination of graphics capability and an app store in the product could be disruptive for existing console players and positive for game (developers),” he wrote. In addition to a new Apple TV, Apple’s Sept. 9 event — dubbed “Hey Siri, give us a hint” — is widely expected to showcase the company’s next-generation iPhones, known informally as the “iPhone 6s” and the “iPhone 6s Plus.” While some on Wall Street are concerned that Apple may not be able to continue growing sales for its handset, Hall doesn’t share those expectations.