While the tech industry has circled Sept. 9 as the date the new iPhone will be revealed, I am looking forward to it for a different reason: the new Apple TV box.

I feel this way despite the fact Apple isn’t going to debut a fancy new television service with the box. The long, long, long-rumored television service remains delayed because Apple still can’t get the economics to work, people who have talked to the company about it have told me.

There’s still a big gap between the price media companies want for their TV channels and the roughly $40 a month Apple wants to charge consumers. Something has to give.

But I’m increasingly convinced Apple’s fate in the living room doesn’t hang on its cable killer—even if it is way cooler than cable.