Lighter than Air(Play) —

Apple hones its focus on services with new TV deals for AirPlay 2, HomeKit

It's another move to get Apple's entertainment services available in more places.

A man onstage gives a presentation in front of giant video screens.
Enlarge / Apple will replace iTunes with Music, Podcasts, and TV on Mac.

Apple’s AirPlay 2 is coming to more television models. Both Vizio and LG have announced plans to roll out support for AirPlay 2 and HomeKit. These moves will offer more households the option to wirelessly stream entertainment from Apple devices through AirPlay 2 and to offer additional connected home and voice controls with HomeKit.

LG is focusing these updates on its newest TV models. The company began a software update to bring AirPlay 2 and HomeKit to select television models from this year. Certain 2019 models of LG OLED and NanoCell 4K UHD TVs with ThinQ AI capability in the United States will be the first to receive the update. The rest of LG’s 2019 4K UHD television collection will get the updates later this year.

Vizio is taking a more comprehensive approach. It will roll out AirPlay 2 and HomeKit support to SmartCast television models from 2016 forward. The company noted that the broad rollout would take several months to complete.

LG and Vizio join a few other television manufacturers with Apple integrations. Samsung added support for AirPlay 2 at the start of 2019. Sony also has AirPlay 2 and HomeKit integrated into some of its televisions.

This is the latest sign that Apple is making a serious pitch to be not just a hardware company but one driven by services. The business' Q2 earnings report earlier this week (in which iPhone sales waned and Services posted a record-high revenue) indicates how the tech giant is shifting priorities.

Making AirPlay 2 more broadly available may not do any favors for sales of the Apple TV set-top box. But it does mean more people will be able to take advantage of Apple Music, Apple Podcasts, and the upcoming Apple TV+ services on the device (or devices) of their choice.

Channel Ars Technica