Steve Jobs on an Apple Television Set: 'I Finally Cracked It'

[MacRumors]

Rumors of an Apple television set have been circulating for years, but the company has repeatedly expressed doubts about the feasibility of entering the market. Steve Jobs himself noted that the current environment of "balkanized" cable operators controlling everything through their own set-top boxes makes it difficult to envision a go-to-market strategy for Apple.




But Walter Isaacson's forthcoming biography of Jobs suggests that Apple may have developed a solution to those ideas, stoking optimism for an Apple-branded television set. Jobs' comments were revealed in an excerpt published by The Washington Post.

"He very much wanted to do for television sets what he had done for computers, music players, and phones: make them simple and elegant," Isaacson wrote.

Isaacson continued: "'I'd like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use,' he told me. 'It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud.' No longer would users have to fiddle with complex remotes for DVD players and cable channels. 'It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it.'"

The report notes that it is not clear what Jobs meant by having "cracked" the television problem, but it seems to focus on leveraging Apple's new iCloud service and potentially existing iTunes Store content, all within an easy-to-use television set.

Article Link: Steve Jobs on an Apple Television Set: 'I Finally Cracked It'

[X_Entity]

This psych out was brought to you by...

[NelsonB]

if apple made a tv... oh it would be so sleek and sexy id buy that right away!

[sparks9]

Why don't you post the whole book already?

[dchap02]

When that comes out it will revolutionize TV the way they do everything else. I'm in line for this one!

[thevofl]

Why is Fermat's Last Theorem running through my head?

[MXChristian11]

wow, sure does stir a bunch of ideas up. If Jobs did it himself, it must be revolutionary.

the wait begins.

[Peace]

Sounds like a new division for Apple,Inc.

Televisions.

[bjett92]

By the time the book comes out, I can just piece all these excerpts together and not have to buy a copy!

[Peace]

Originally Posted by bjett92

By the time the book comes out, I can just piece all these excerpts together and not have to buy a copy!

Na. I think the book is like 500 pages.

Lots of good stuff to read.

[Tee1970]

Wonder if it is based on using Siri too? No more remote with a ton of buttons, optional voice interface? Display anything on your ipod/ipad/iphone, imac, icloud, and do everything a regular tv does with broadcast tv....

[carmenodie]

I think he meant that he found a way to give the user all they needed through simple, intuitive design.
Now, look no further than crappy azz Sony and that ************ Sony internet tv. I was in the Sony style store several months ago and saw that trash. I have no effing idea what the hell anything did on that 40 plus button remote. And I'm sure most of that crap didn't work anyway.

[basesloaded190]

Originally Posted by bjett92

By the time the book comes out, I can just piece all these excerpts together and not have to buy a copy!

Good thing the book is like 700+ pages

An actual Apple TV, I'm sold.

[JeffLubowski]

If this TV has built in cameras that work like the Kinect developers would have a fun time creating apps for the thing.

[BC2009]

At least I won't have to wait in line or reserve a copy of this biography when buying on iBooks. I can't wait to read it.

Ever notice how digital media has destroyed the ability to hype a music or book release with long lines of people clamoring to be the first to own it so they don't have to wait for the shelves to be restocked?

Now the release of a book or an album is simply a matter of tapping a virtual button to download it.

Just imagine if somebody makes a virtual iPhone or iPad -- then you would not have to wait in line for that either. But then we'd all have to be living in a virtual world.

[NumberNine]

I won't even need to read the book when it comes in at this rate.

[dagamer34]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/9A334)

Get rid if cable channels? As much as we'd all love for that to happen, you KNOW there are too many special interests to make a product like that work the way it really needs to right out of the box. Not unless you plan on buying all of your content from iTunes, and that can get rather pricy if you aren't careful.

[TallManNY]

Originally Posted by BC2009

At least I won't have to wait in line or reserve a copy of this biography when buying on iBooks. I can't wait to read it.

Ever notice how digital media has destroyed the ability to hype a music or book release with long lines of people clamoring to be the first to own it so they don't have to wait for the shelves to be restocked?

No I didn't notice that at the last Harry Potter book release.

[Thanatoast]

ooooohhhhhhh. promising....

[bjett92]

Originally Posted by BC2009

At least I won't have to wait in line or reserve a copy of this biography when buying on iBooks. I can't wait to read it.

I'm definitely going for the hard back, just because I want to add it to my Apple collection.

[ProVideo]

Isn't Apple's hurdle with tv shows and movies the same as it has been for years? Unless all the networks, channels, and studios are on board, people will still depend on Cable and Satellite.

The only way I see this working is if Apple partners with Cable or Satellite companies, like they did with the phone carriers, to build the hardware and software that delivers their content.

[Kaibelf]

Originally Posted by mactvman

soo....he wanted to make the tv cost about 4 times more than they do now?

kinda hard to imagine people would fork over 4-6k for a tv....then again this is apple, people will give their left nut for it.

Give it a rest. How's that sub-$500 Android tablet and sub-$100 GoogleTV working out for you?

[Stella]

Personally, I find my set top box easy to use!

"Steve Jobs himself noted that the current environment of "balkanized" cable operators controlling everything through their own set-top boxes makes it difficult to envision a go-to-market strategy for Apple."

I find this quote funny. He's complaining about operators control over TV content. Apple do exactly the same thing in their product line.

[jacobo007]

Originally Posted by mactvman

soo....he wanted to make the tv cost about 4 times more than they do now?

kinda hard to imagine people would fork over 4-6k for a tv....then again this is apple, people will give their left nut for it.

It would definitely be in the high-end of the market, however it wouldn't be more expensive than TVs in that range... the size of the potential TV is what I'm wondering... 1 size fits all? several sizes?

[Northgrove]

Surprised how open he was about unannounced products and strategies.