Comments made by late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs to his biographer set off a flurry of reports that said an Apple television could come at the end of next year or in 2013. Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and others failed to give it wings, Apple has treated it like a hobby and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) has grappled to make Google TV mainstream.
So what will an integrated Apple Television experience look like? Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, who has been calling for a complete Apple TV for the last five years, said the service will work with iCloud, combining live television with TV recorded in the cloud.
Global Equities analyst Trip Chowdry went so far as to say the full Apple TV will resemble Bose VideoWave TV. The meme received a big boost this past week when Bloomberg reported that Apple has tabbed iTunes and iPod engineer Jeff Robbin is leading development of the Apple television set. Steven P. Jobs, co-founder of Apple, told his biographer, Walter Isaacson.
Apple engineers and designers, spurred by Mr. Jobs, have been struggling for years to find a new interface for the television. Apple would give people a way to choose the content on their television that is as easy as choosing the content on their iPod, iPhone or iPad. Alternative remote ideas floated by Apple included a wireless keyboard and mouse, or using an iPod, iPhone or iPad as a remote. Enter Siri.
“Play the local news headlines.” “Play some Coldplay music videos.” Siri does the rest.
As the line between television programming and Web content continues to erode, a Siri-powered television would become more necessary. I first heard about Apple’s television plans over a year ago.
At the time, an individual who has knowledge of Apple’s prototype supply chains overseas told me they had seen some “large parts floating around” that belonged to Apple. This person believed that it “looked like the parts could be part of a large Apple television.”
I immediately began snooping around, asking Apple employees and people close to the company if a full fledged Apple Television was in the works. Mr. Jobs reiterated this sentiment in his biography, explaining to Mr. Isaacson that an Apple television “will have the simplest user interface you could imagine.”
On my quest to learn more about the Apple television project, I learned that executives at Apple knew as far back as 2007 that the company would eventually make a dedicated TV.
This realization came shortly after the company released the Apple TV, a box that connects to any manufacturer’s television to stream iTunes content. Consumers did not flock to the Apple TV, and rather than abandon the project, Apple began calling it a “hobby.” A recent report issued by Barclays predicted that if Apple made a television set, excluding content deals, Apple could generate an additional $19 billion in revenue a year. So where’s the Apple television? Although some 42-inch LCD televisions from mainstream consumer electronics companies can cost as little as $500, the Apple television would include computer electronics and other technology that may make the price uncompetitive.
Post a Comment