For years, Apple has had its sights set on the living room as the next technological frontier ripe for a revolution. Speculation of an advanced iTV has been long-rumored, and in one of his final interviews with writer Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs even spoke of his plan to create an integrated television set that would have “the simplest interface you could imagine.”

Last week, the world got its first glimpse of this groundbreaking, easy-to-use television system – but it didn’t come from Apple. Instead, the first move in the TV revolution came from Microsoft in the form of their new Xbox One. And this next generation Xbox goes well beyond gaming with a console that integrates with your cable box, allowing viewers to channel surf via voice control, video chat while watching TV, and stream video.

So does this mean Apple has lost its chance to claim dominance over the living room? Not necessarily. If anything, the introduction of the new Xbox One has rejuvenated interest in what Apple’s next move will be. The aura and mystery surrounding Apple’s product launches has always helped them dominate the world of electronics marketing. This just supports something that many of us in the advertising industry have always known – it doesn’t matter who does it first, but rather who does it better.