AppleTV turns into iTV, loses 1080P but gains Apps

Engadget’s got another Apple…er iTV scoop on their hands.  According to their source, Apple is changing the name of the AppleTV to iTV and, with it, will forgo the use of 1080P video.  Perhaps Apple’s A4 ARM Chip isn’t yet powerful enough to handle 1080P reliably (even though the specs on ARM Cortex A8 Processors will tell us otherwise).  They reiterate it will be a small, $99 box with specs similar to other iOS devices and cloud storage.

On the iTV name, Apple originally codenamed the AppleTV iTV but balked at the anme at the time because of trademark issues.  They could have worked those out in the same way they worked out the iOS and iPhone trademarks with Cisco.

In exchange for 1080P, the iTV will get Apps from the iOS App Store (it is ‘iTV’ after all) and will run a variant of iOS.  There was no word on the $.99 rentals or TV shows however.

So how does the lack of 1080P sit with you? GoogleTV, which will be based on higher powered Intel Chips and run Android with marketplace apps, will run 1080P.