iTunes Store to Offer Some Neat Stuff Later This Year; Apple TV Still A Hobby

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Today’s quarterly earnings conference call hosted by Apple revealed some interesting things about Apple’s near and distant future. Apple confirmed that Mac OS X Lion is coming tomorrow, while the launch of the iPhone 4S/5 has been hinted to be September. But Apple also elaborated on its iTunes and Apple TV plans for the future.

Apple TV is still a well-received Apple product, but it’s definitely not one of main cash earners for Apple. Tim Cook confirmed it’s still just a hobby, one in which Apple is still ready to invest, but that doesn’t mean we’re necessarily going to see a new Apple TV get official later this year. In fact Apple made no reference to a potential Apple-branded big-screen TV, which is something we’ve seen in previous rumors; not that the company would reveal such new products during a financial conference call.

As for iTunes, that’s definitely an important Apple product. iTunes revenue has gone up 36% year over year and there are over 225 million registered accounts ready to purchase content from Apple. The App Store has 425,000 apps, with about 100k of those being just iPad-ready apps. The App Store reached 15 billion downloads and $2.5 billion paid to investors, and I’m sure it will continue to grow in the following quarters.

But analysts listening in on Apple’s conference call asked about Apple’s future plans regarding the iTunes Store and the content it has to offer. Peter Oppenheimer decided to offer everyone a bit of a teaser as he hinted at “neat stuff” hitting the iTunes Store in the near future. We’re talking specifically about movies here, which is one area Apple could improve in the future. Oppenheimer’s remark, while not revealing actual details, is quite interesting and we can’t wait to see what Apple is working on, especially with iOS 5, OS X Lion and iCloud about to be launched this quarter.

What would you like to see from Apple, when it comes to the movie and TV shows side of the iTunes business? What about Apple TV? Would you buy an Apple-made big-screen TV?