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Tim Cook at D10: Dodges Questions about TV, Is an Area of "Intense Interest"

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Apr 12, 2001
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At this year's All Things D conference, Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher asked Apple CEO Tim Cook about the Apple TV and the company's interest in making a full fledged television set. Rumors of such a product have been persistent but with increasing frequency over the past few years.

Cook reiterated the relatively small success of the current Apple TV set top box. He notes that the device has been selling at twice the rate of the previous year with 2.7 million units sold in the first 6 months of 2012. As he has in the past, Cook reports that there is incredibly high customer satisfaction with the current Apple TV set top box, and it's an area they have intense interest in:
This is an area of intense interest for us. Many of us, the TV that we do watch, is almost exclusively on [the Apple TV]. That's what my TV watching is. All of my movies, everything is coming through Apple TV.

So, the customer satisfaction with that product is incredible. We're going to keep pulling this string and see where it takes us. Many people would say "this is an area in their life that they aren't pleased with." They might not be pleased with many things about it. The whole TV experience. It's an interesting area. We'll have to see what we do. Right now our contribution is Apple TV.
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A bit later in the interview, Mossberg comes out and asked Tim Cook directly "Are you making a television", to which Cook replies that he's not going to answer that question.

Cook does discuss their general approach to product design in response to Apple's possible contribution to the television market:
We would look at this and say can we control the key technology? Can we make a significant contribution beyond what others have made in this area? Can we make a product that we would all want? That's all thing we would ask about any new product category. It's the ones we ask about products within families we're thinking about now.
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Article Link: Tim Cook at D10: Dodges Questions about TV, Is an Area of "Intense Interest"
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2012/05/29/tim-cook-at-d10-dodges-questions-about-tv-area-of-intense-interest/
funman895

funman895

macrumors member
Jul 30, 2008
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Well that's a standard response from an Apple exec. It seems to me that they're definitely working on something, but based on the second quote it might not be something that's happening soon. He said Apple won't get involved if it's not something they can greatly improve the core technology of.

I think if Apple is going to make a TV, it's going to be something really special that people can't ignore (like the Apple TV is often ignored). If it is being released, get ready for a show-stopper!

Also: I love how the movie "Senna" is in the pic.
 
S

SprodeBoy

macrumors member
Mar 5, 2012
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Mankato, Minnesota
Good Move

I think the apple TV not only has a future, but will become the next iPhone sort of thing. Apple will go from a nobody to a large competitor in the TV business
 
myrtlebee

myrtlebee

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Jul 9, 2011
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I like Tim's answer on Ping ... the customers voted... not something they want to put a lot of energy into. When asked if they would scrap it, he said some people find it useful. I haven't heard a word about Ping since the day it was introduced. It's a bit embarrassing. I think it should be scrapped when iTunes gets some attention (possibly this year).
 
M

mjtomlin

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Jan 19, 2002
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More telling from the interview is when Kara asked Tim what he considered the key technology in TVs to be...

All he said was, "I'm not telling you that."

From this I think they have something different they're working on that isn't as obvious as everyone else thinks it may be.
 
C

Cougarcat

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Sep 19, 2003
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A bit later in the interview, Mossberg comes out and asked Tim Cook directly "Are you making a television", to which Cook replies that he's not going to answer that question.
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Why even bother asking the question? He knew Cook would say that!

So many questions were a waste.
 
nfl46

nfl46

macrumors G3
Oct 5, 2008
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I don't foresee an Apple TV coming out this year. But only Apple knows. They should wait until Summer 2013.

This summer the focus should be the new MacBooks, fall should be the new iPhone, Spring 2013 should be iPad, Summer 2013 , Apple TV and minor update to MacBooks...and so on.
 
jaw04005

jaw04005

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Aug 19, 2003
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mjtomlin said:
From this I think they have something different they're working on that isn't as obvious as everyone else thinks it may be.
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I'm starting to think this is going to be another iMac/iPod/iPhone/iPad moment and it has to be getting close considering all the chatter. Another January introduction with 6+ months of FCC approval to follow?
 
S

segfaultdotorg

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Jan 25, 2007
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So, the customer satisfaction with that product is incredible.
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LOL. I bought an AppleTV 3 last week and returned it after one day. I have a 3 megabit DSL line, and it would only stream Netflix at 560k, over a wired connection. My computers will easily do 2350 and my (first generation, non-adaptive bitrate) DVD player will do 1750.

So, I'm keeping my first-gen AppleTV for now and continuing to use the DVD player to stream on my TV. Very disappointed in the Netflix streaming capabilities of the ATV3 and its inability/unwillingness to upshift to higher bitrate streams when there is plenty of bandwidth available to do so. It appears the buffer in the ATV3 is much smaller than the computer (4 minutes) or the DVD player (usually 1-2 minutes), which may be part of the problem.
 
J

jontech

macrumors 6502
Feb 26, 2010
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Hawaii
segfaultdotorg said:
LOL. I bought an AppleTV 3 last week and returned it after one day. I have a 3 megabit DSL line, and it would only stream Netflix at 560k, over a wired connection. My computers will easily do 2350 and my (first generation, non-adaptive bitrate) DVD player will do 1750.

So, I'm keeping my first-gen AppleTV for now and continuing to use the DVD player to stream on my TV. Very disappointed in the Netflix streaming capabilities of the ATV3 and its inability/unwillingness to upshift to higher bitrate streams when there is plenty of bandwidth available to do so. It appears the buffer in the ATV3 is much smaller than the computer (4 minutes) or the DVD player (usually 1-2 minutes), which may be part of the problem.
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Sure its not the connection? Did you try over Wifi to test?

Make sure it was connecting at 100 full or GB?
 
filmantopia

filmantopia

macrumors 6502a
Feb 5, 2010
858
2,439
SprodeBoy said:
One can dream. But wouldn't a keynote precede a reveal? Has apple ever released a product without one?
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Standard Mac refreshes aren't preceded with a keynote. But doubtful the rumored refreshes will show up now, without a keynote, as they will likely be considerably major product upgrades.
 
A

adrianweller

macrumors newbie
Jun 28, 2011
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jaw04005 said:
I'm starting to think this is going to be another iMac/iPod/iPhone/iPad moment and it has to be getting close considering all the chatter. Another January introduction with 6+ months of FCC approval to follow?
Click to expand...

I'm sure it will be an iPhone moment - if it happens. As Tim Cook says, they're not even going to release it unless it is that level of disruption to the current industry.
 
S

SprodeBoy

macrumors member
Mar 5, 2012
66
0
Mankato, Minnesota
filmantopia said:
Standard Mac refreshes aren't preceded with a keynote. But doubtful the rumored refreshes will show up now, without a keynote, as they will likely be considerably major product upgrades.
Click to expand...

Especially a product as might as the mac pro. Years without a refresh and apple silently places it on the store? Doubtful
 
silroc

silroc

macrumors 6502
Jun 17, 2010
383
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Tv should be an area of interest. I echo my comments from another thread. TV is so ubiquitous, so huge, no consumer electronics company could possibly ignore this segment.
 
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