Apple CEO Tim Cook said that the TV was an area of “intense interest” for the company, which is exactly what he said last time he had an interview. While this does not make us feel very excited about the product coming, it does show that Apple have not dropped the TV project, whatever that may be.
When speaking to Brian Williams on NBC, Cook said “When I go into my living room and turn on the TV, I feel like I have gone backwards in time by 20 to 30 years,” it seems that Apple seem to want to push the boundaries of what a TV can do, as they did with the phone.
We do not believe Apple will actually bring anything different to the TV itself, rather, that the service and the interface the TV will be changed, so that content, applications and possibly video games will be on an easy-to-digest format. Google and others have tried to do this, but failed because of poor content and lackluster integration.
Apple did prevail in changing the music industries view on digital sales, when they made iTunes a huge success. We still believe that the music industry should open up to streaming service and content pricing, but they are more open than they were pre-iTunes.
The problem Apple will have is getting TV distributors to do the same – the TV industry is prevailing and does not need a cheaper way to sell their content, as they are doing fine on their packages right now. Cable TV may not be the user’s favorite way of watching content, but it is far from a failure in terms of revenue.
To get these deals at an exclusive Apple price and to have a way to distribute all kinds of content will rely on Apple enforcing their large capital. We just wonder if Google could not make a huge stride, how much hope Apple has of making a revolutionary service.