For over a year now, we've been waiting for an Apple television.
And if the current line of reports is accurate, we might be waiting another year before it materializes.
Whenever it's finally released, it will have been years in the making. Apple has been thinking about the television market for a very long time.
We have updated our collection of quotes from Steve Jobs and Tim Cook about the TV market in light of the newest developments in the last twelve months.
We think reading this stuff over helps to illustrate Apple's thinking about how it might approach the TV market, which really seems like its due for a major makeover.
This video of Steve Jobs from 1998 is a perfect look at the challenges of making an interactive TV
In this fuzzy video, Jobs explains what's wrong with "convergence" of the TV and the PC. The TV is used when we want to turn off our brains. The PC is used when we want to turn on our brains. The TV is for leaning back. The PC is for leaning in. How do you make these two gadgets play nice when they're designed for two totally different uses?
And here's a loose transcription of his conversation: "Your television is going to make toast. What is the most successful consumer product in the last 10 years? It's the PC. Here's all these PC companies running around looking for a consumer product when that's what they make! Right?
It's the most successful consumer product of the last 10 years, so naturally we want to combine it with the television. I've spent enough time in entertainment now with Pixar, and with Disney, who's just a terrific company to work with, by the way, is that people go to their television primarily to turn their brain off. I used to think like many of you might have thought that there was this giant conspiracy from the networks to but mediocrity on television and dumb us down, did you ever think that? I thought that. It thought that was giant conspiracy to rob the American populace of their mind if not their soul. I then found out the truth which is far more depressing. The networks give people precisely what they want. The reason people want this stuff. They come home from a long day. They have dinner with their kids and they're fighting and they get them into bed and they just want to turn their brain off for half an hour. Do you ever do that? I mean, I must admit I don't watch much TV, but I can admit I will turn on the TV for a half hour, and it really does turn your brain off. People got to their TV to turn their brain off. People go to their PC to turn their brain on. These things aren't going to be together, they perform completely separate functions. So I think it's as crazy as other combinations you can imagine. And I don't think it's going to happen, you know.
I also think people want to interact with their computers. Keyboards, mice, up close better resolutions, they want to sit back from their televisions. Web TV has been an utter failure so far, so I just do see it happening. Now, sure, everybody would like a better online TV guide, ok. Sony should build in an online TV guide to their TV sets, I grant you that. But is this digital convergence? So, that's what I think of it."
Jobs thought about it, and delivered the Apple TV. Ironically it was introduced on the same day as the iPhone. Jobs said, "We think this is really going to be something really quite special."
It wasn't. The $299 Apple TV box didn't sell very well. But, Jobs never pretended it was going to be a huge seller.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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