South African TV viewers will be able to buy Apple TV, in essence Apple's own set-top box (STB) for the first time from this Friday, a very strong indicator that Apple plans to soon add TV shows to its iTunes service for South Africa.
The commercial roll-out of the hardware would make no sense without content to play through it, and now Apple TV will start selling locally from Friday at the recommended retail price of R1 099.
With the device already used in other countries and by South Africans who've bought it overseas, South African viewers channel TV content such as television shows, films and even music through the box which connects to iTunes as well as to other content receptacles within its reach. Content is then streamed to TV sets.
The Apple TV will be available from Friday in South Africa from Makro, Incredible Connection, Dion, Wired, Hi-Fi Corp, Digicape and iStore.
Apple in December allowed South Africans for the first time to buy music through iTunes and a week later also made movies - as well as South African films - commercially available on the service.
