Report: No revamped Apple TV coming this year after all [Updated]

Those hoping for a revamped Apple TV box this year might need to keep on waiting, according to a new report from The Information (subscription required). Apple reportedly wants to launch new hardware with a revamped user interface that gives users access to both broadcasts and streaming content. However, the company's efforts to procure this additional content are apparently being held up by "cable companies 'dragging their heels'," the proposed merger of Comcast and Time Warner Cable, and other external factors.

The Information's sources say that Apple engineers are now being told to work "off of timelines that assume a launch next year." Whether this new box would replace or augment the current $99 Apple TV box is not clear. Several reports have pointed to some new kind of Apple TV device coming out this year, but so far no updates have materialized. The first reports claimed that a new box would be released in the first half of 2014, which has already come and gone, and later rumors said "by Christmas."

In addition to a new interface and a deeper well of content to draw from, other rumors have suggested that Apple could position a new Apple TV box as a mini-game console or that it could serve as a hub for Apple's recently announced HomeKit initiative. While Apple continues to work behind the scenes on its next set-top box, the current Apple TV is competing against an ever-growing list of competitors, including the Roku, Amazon's Fire TV, and Google's Chromecast and upcoming Android TV operating system.

In the meantime, the current-generation Apple TV continues to receive software updates (and new content channels) to keep it in lockstep with iOS, but it has yet to receive an iOS 7 or Yosemite-style makeover. Its hardware hasn't been updated substantially since March of 2012. Older second-generation Apple TVs will no longer receive software updates beginning with iOS 8, and no rumors have stated definitively whether current third-generation models will get the promised UI update when the new box is finally released.

Update: The Information contacted us to clarify that Apple could still release a new version of the $99 Apple TV box at some point this year. What is being held up by negotiations is apparently "a totally new type of box integrated with live TV and cable subscriptions."