iTunes Creator Jeff Robbin Heading Apple Television Effort?

If Gene Munster gets it right for once and is vindicated then anything can happen in this world!

To be fair to Gene though everyone was calling him a clown when he was talking about an apple TV and putting him down because he, well, was a clown to be quite frank. The fact that whatever he's been "predicting" over the past 4-5 years might actually come to pass doesn't mean as the article implies that his "long held assertion" had any basis whatsoever when he was making it, it means that at some point Steve thought he 'd cracked the tv aspect and said go for it to apple.

We love to hate you Gene.

SBlue1 said:

no, please no TVs!

i love my apple-tv. just update it with 1080hd, siri voice control, a 1080p facetime-camera and i will buy it again! i will not buy another TV just to replace my current new big 3d hd TV.

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You say that now... Until Apple brings the house down with an amazing new technology that will make you sell your 3D TV...

W1MRK said:

But will it support Blu-Ray?

Please no down votes LOL

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I don't get why Apple fanboys hate on Blu-ray so much. I think it is fantastic, and definitely like it better than streaming 720p, or downloading 1080p over the Internet or something.

I'm honestly curious to know though. I can see why Jobs hated it (not Apple's own invention, therefore not proprietary enough, blah blah), but why do fanboys hate on it?

KnightWRX said:

And that doesn't require a 1800$ TV Set, it just requires an Apple TV set top box and a Airport Express connected to an Internet connection.

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But having Apple TV as a separate box still gives the cable companies the upper hand. This is the whole problem that Jobs described at All Things D and why AppleTV as a box is still a "hobby". You can't compete with cable companies if people already have cable boxes with PVR's given to them for free. They're not going to go out and buy yet another box, even though the new price of ATV2 made it more attractive @ $99.

The way to beat the cable companies is for a customer to leave the Apple Store with a TV set, get home, plug it in, be prompted to sign in with their Apple ID and already have all their iCloud content on the tv and new content ready to be purchased directly on the tv, without ever involving the cable companies.

This will be controversial but I believe that an Apple TV won't have any of the commonly used ports. No coaxial, no RCA, no Component, and possibly no HDMI either, although Apple may relent on the latter. I expect that it will have Thunderbolt however. Apple is notorious for retiring established I/O in favour of the upcoming technology. Apple skates to where the puck is going to be.

None of the content will come from external boxes like BluRay or PVRs. All the content will come via iCloud and iTunes. Apple already offers to iTunes users all the content available to cable companies except for live tv.

Live TV fits into two categories: News and Sports. Sports are already essentially solved with ATV's already existing apps for NHL, NBA and MLB (NFL will eventually relent). Live news apps already exist on iOS. It's a matter of porting them to AppleTV. A CNN or MSBNC or Fox News (ugh) or any other 24 hour network news feed via an app is the solution here with many local stations offering their feed in iOS apps as well.

What Apple has to achieve is have customers ask these questions: Why pay for cable tv when I can pick and choose which shows I like to watch (not which channels)? Why schedule programs to be recorded on a PVR when I can simply select any of those shows and watch instantly, without scheduling anything? Why do I need a cable PVR box at all? I have iTunes and iCloud already built into my new tv!

I'm guessing that I'll probably get some negative votes from these predictions because a lot of people still hold on to the old way of doing things and want to record tv channels, but many other people including the new generation of consumers understands that content on demand is the future, not channels spewing out content on fixed schedules.

Steve Jobs quoted Henry Ford: "If I had asked costumers what they wanted, they'd ask me for a faster horse!"

colbertnation said:

I don't get why Apple fanboys hate on Blu-ray so much. I think it is fantastic, and definitely like it better than streaming 720p, or downloading 1080p over the Internet or something.

I'm honestly curious to know though. I can see why Jobs hated it (not Apple's own invention, therefore not proprietary enough, blah blah), but why do fanboys hate on it?

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Jobs did not hate blu ray. He just didn't implement it.

And I don't think fanboys hate blu ray either. Most of them probably do have blu ray players even.

ArchaicRevival said:

Why are you people putting a price on something that you have no idea about? You're not a professional analyst so calm down everyone...

A 46" 1080P Samsung TV will cost $1,099.99 after $100 Off, that's straight from the Costco website. Why not have a TV set that has Apple TV built in, and a built in WiFi Card for $1300? Even $1500 would be pretty freaking amazing.

Besides, the investment is not in the actual TV set itself, it's in the UI. I would definitely invest in a $2000 TV if it allows me to get my channels on demand instead of paying for garbage bundles that I don't necessarily need.

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The same reason I never buy a combo anything. No VHS/TV combo, no DVD/tv combo, no DVD/surround system combo all in one and no Apple TV/LCD combo.

TMar said:

The same reason I never buy a combo anything. No VHS/TV combo, no DVD/tv combo, no DVD/surround system combo all in one and no Apple TV/LCD combo.

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yeah and 90% of this forum didn't "get" the ipad even as close as a few months before its release. Never say never, not with apple at least.

firestarter said:

But Apple does do that...

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Uh yeah, sarcasm.

No. Apple computers have OSX - and that's the value-add. I'm still not feeling what additional value Apple brings to the TV that makes it worth a premium price.

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I don't think the software is where all the quality comes from. I didn't pay $1500 just for the quality OS, I paid for the quality build of the MBP; Its keyboard, SMS, Keyboard Backlight, Widescreen display, and FaceTime Camera, Battery, Trackpad...need I go on?

It's All About The Content

If the rumor is true it makes perfect sense. The "insanely great" aspect of iTunes is not the software, but the fact that you can easily browse and purchase an enormous library of music. Not only that, iTunes changed the music industry business model from an album oriented sales approach to a cherry picking single song approach. The iPod is certainly a beautiful piece of hardware, but without iTunes it's little more than a better crafted mp3 player.

Now extrapolate that to television. I think it means that you can create a video library which is fairly all encompassing and easily discoverable. But you also need to be able to view live events. Live TV (sports, news, award shows, American Idol, etc.) are the killer app of television. That's the reason NFL football is BY FAR the most watched programming on US television. It's also one of the least conducive to viewing on a VCR and blowing by the commercials.

If Apple has "cracked" the code to fundamentally change TV they need to have a radically new way of organizing and selling the content. They will have also had to work with the cable tv companies because they provide the high speed pipe into most people's homes and won't look at being taken out of the content distribution business too kindly.

Making a top of the line sleek TV is only a small part of the equation. We all know Apple can easily do that... no magic there. To reengineer the content distribution and consumption business (a very tall order), well that could be magical. An it will take another iTunes to pull this off.

as for all the talk about value added by apple on the tv, don't forget apple has been making some really sweet deals with lg (long term exclusive deals), amonst other panel manufacturers, and based on it's clout it holds all sorts of suppliers by the balls to offer much more than anyone can in ANY tech market at the moment. So prepare to be amazed on a hardware level too, that's all I am saying.

GiantSteve said:

Now extrapolate that to television. I think it means that you can create a video library which is fairly all encompassing and easily discoverable. But you also need to be able to view live events. Live TV (sports, news, award shows, American Idol, etc.) are the killer app of television.

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Thanks, missed some of those. Sports (NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB apps), News (24H News Network feeds in apps) and get networks or production companies on board with live content like American Idol, Award shows and other live content.

Apple killed the cable box star

I would like to see all cable company/network "bundles" dead and gone.
the present system drains money from the consumer like a vampire squid. (sorry Goldman Sachs)

You get your Apple TV. You get your content from the cloud. Maybe you pay less than the horrid tariff you pay now.

AmbiguousNinja said:

Uh yeah, sarcasm.

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I don't think the software is where all the quality comes from. I didn't pay $1500 just for the quality OS, I paid for the quality build of the MBP; Its keyboard, SMS, Keyboard Backlight, Widescreen display, and FaceTime Camera, Battery, Trackpad...need I go on?

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You and I buy Macs for different reasons. If it weren't for OSX, I'd be happy enough buying a Lenovo.

If you buy apple's tv set then when the next couple of versions comes out they will no longer support your tv because it will have a slower processor then the rest and won't be able to get new updates and then You won't get any new apps that require the new update and you would have to go buy another expensive tv to get support again.

I'm with the others who hope that the TV rumours are overblown and generally wrong.

46" 1080P Samsung TV will cost $1,099.99 after $100 Off, that's straight from the Costco website. Why not have a TV set that has Apple TV built in, and a built in WiFi Card for $1300? Even $1500 would be pretty freaking amazing.

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I recently bought a 55" Panasonic TCP55GT30. ~$1600, plus Tax and a few random cables. I already owned a recent Apple TV (love the little things, for netflix mostly). But you can add the $120 the aTV adds to the price. The Panasonic includes its own wifi adapter. My television is connected to neither Cable nor Satellite. All my content comes from either Internet Sources or local files.

The TV has an interface (Viera Connect), I can connect to youtube, and a few other useless places. There is no reason to use it whatsoever. Well, to correct that, there would be if the TV itself supported more video codecs. The TV has a upnp client, which allows me to connect to a upnp server on my Mac Pro, and I can see the existence of many years of downloading TV shows from various internet sources.

Most of my content isn't strictly legal. I was downloading BSG before it was available in Canada for example, but I also bought the DVDs when they became available. I'm not going to bother with the process of ripping the DVDs to digital, it's usually faster just to torrent the season and leave the dvd on the shelf. I have a couple hundred gigs of videos this way.

Anyhow, yes - there's room for improvement in the interface on the TV. I don't use it though, because there's no content for it. Apple can improve the interface on the TV itself, but Apple isn't very likely to make it easier for me to play my semi-pirated video collection.

The Apple TV already makes it easy to order high quality content through the iTunes store. The other apps on the aTV add more content, one thing that is needed is an Apple TV app store, so more content providers can add their apps to the device. (I was very happy that NHL added one, but it shouldn't have taken an OS update for it, just a visit to the app store).

There is no margin in televisions. Sure Apple specializes in making margins in markets that others are racing to the bottom with, but I have a harder time seeing mass success in the $2k to $4k price range. It'd be more like their computers, on the outwards side of success.

It's dangerous to bet against Apple, but I see Apple's true path to success lying in their route with the AppleTV, not in the re-marketing of expensive, low margin displays.

"iTunes Creator"? That's a bit generous, given the original iTunes borrowed very heavily from Cassidy & Greene's SoundJam MP-- down to the code it used. Apple bought it, so it wasn't stealing, but it certainly wasn't original.

Hell, even the early OS X (carbon) versions of iTunes still had SoundJam code.

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firestarter said:

You and I buy Macs for different reasons. If it weren't for OSX, I'd be happy enough buying a Lenovo.

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Never, ever buy a Lenovo. I was foolish enough to do so (as was my mother, and various other friends); none of us have been happy with them. Good performance, horrible stability and reliability.

firestarter said:

I really hope that Apple isn't concentrating it's efforts on making a TV.

I can't think of a product more dull and passive than a TV set. Turn it on, sit there watching some junk, turn it off.

Where's the 'value add' here? Sure, Apple could redefine the way you pay for programs - but that's not exactly a big deal (and definitely not insanely great).

All Apple's best devices have spurred interaction and creativity. TV is dull!

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Apple redefined music and is now the #1 seller of music in the US.

Apple's iPod began to do more than just play music. It morphed into a portable photo book, a tiny movie player, etc, and then ultimately into the iPhone and then the iPad.

Were you able to see all this ten years ago? I doubt it. I remember thinking that the Rio mp3 player my nephew received as a present in 2000 was little more than a gimmick. Oops...

This seems so real!

This is a new step for Apple. This rumor sounds so true that this might be legit because didn't Steve Jobs said that one of his project (besides the iPhone 5) he wanted to change television?

I can't wait to see what Apple will have to offer us in the near future. This is why I chose Apple. They are always moving forward no matter what and no one can stop them!

RIP Steve Jobs 1955-2011

I smell deals with Comcast, Time-Warner et. al.

ArchaicRevival said:

Why are you people putting a price on something that you have no idea about? You're not a professional analyst so calm down everyone...

A 46" 1080P Samsung TV will cost $1,099.99 after $100 Off, that's straight from the Costco website. Why not have a TV set that has Apple TV built in, and a built in WiFi Card for $1300? Even $1500 would be pretty freaking amazing.

Besides, the investment is not in the actual TV set itself, it's in the UI. I would definitely invest in a $2000 TV if it allows me to get my channels on demand instead of paying for garbage bundles that I don't necessarily need.

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You'd be "amazed" by Apple selling an $1100 TV with a $100 AppleTV built in for $1500? Really? You must be easily impressed.

jaw04005 said:

However, wouldn't it be interesting if it didn't have HDMI inputs either? What if it got all of its content strictly from iTunes?

Would that force Fox, Disney, Viacom and Universal to provide their content for it? Maybe.

That would be pretty wild.

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It would be awful. What about my xbox, PS3 and numerous other connections - even the Apple TV or iPad!

cantthinkofone said:

Why a tv? Yes it will look nice but what do you think it will cost? Im betting at least $2000 for a 42" 1080 LED. While others sell the same thing for half that.

Stick with computers, phones, and OS X apple.

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What I've heard over the years

2001 Stick with computers

2007 Stick with computers, OSX and iPods

2010 Stick with Computers, OSX, iPods and iPhones

2011 Stick with Computers, OSX, iPods, iPhones and iPads

2000-2011 Apple grows to be most valuable tech company in the world by ignoring what you say

firestarter said:

I really hope that Apple isn't concentrating it's efforts on making a TV.

I can't think of a product more dull and passive than a TV set. Turn it on, sit there watching some junk, turn it off.

Where's the 'value add' here? Sure, Apple could redefine the way you pay for programs - but that's not exactly a big deal (and definitely not insanely great).

All Apple's best devices have spurred interaction and creativity. TV is dull!

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People probably said the same about the iPhone in it's development stage. However, onstage in 2007 at the iPhone Keynote whereSteve introduced the 1st iPhone he said said "Today Apple REDEFINES the phone."

So maybe, Apple will REDEFINE the television where it is no longer the boring dull machine you describe.

MacSince1990 said:

"iTunes Creator"? That's a bit generous, given the original iTunes borrowed very heavily from Cassidy & Greene's SoundJam MP-- down to the code it used. Apple bought it, so it wasn't stealing, but it certainly wasn't original.

Hell, even the early OS X (carbon) versions of iTunes still had SoundJam code.

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Jeff Robbin is the creator of SoundJam.

MacSince1990 said:

"iTunes Creator"? That's a bit generous, given the original iTunes borrowed very heavily from Cassidy & Greene's SoundJam MP-- down to the code it used. Apple bought it, so it wasn't stealing, but it certainly wasn't original.

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I agree with you about being generous, but being the "creator" of iTunes is hardly an achievement worth bragging about. iTunes is an archaic application that is in dire need of a re-write. The UI is terrible.

It's scary if Apple is putting this "creator" in charge of heading up Apple Television.