The rumor mill is churning about Apple getting into the television business. And none other than the engineer who built iTunes is on board to help develop the new product, according to Bloomberg.
Bloomberg reports that Jeff Robbin, who also helped create the iPod, is hands-on with an Apple-branded television set. The rumors may have spawned from Steve Jobs’ biographer, Walter Isaacson. Jobs apparently told him that he had “finally cracked” how to build an integrated TV that would connect content with existing Apple devices.
“It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine,” Jobs told Isaacson in the biography “Steve Jobs.” Simon & Schuster released the biography Monday. Apple did not return calls seeking comment on the rumors. The only TV-type product Apple currently offers is the $ 99 Apple TV set-top box that lets consumers tap their content from iTunes, YouTube and Netflix from an existing television.
Targeting Netflix?
With Netflix’s current challenges, an Apple TV could be a home run for the iPhone-maker. However, Apple would be the first of many to make the transition successfully. Dell, Gateway, Pioneer and Hewlett-Packard all tried to introduce television sets to the market and largely failed.
“Television is a much tougher nut to crack than the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad were because we are dealing with a saturated market, and Apple’s primary competitor in terms of services are cable and satellite operators who can roll trucks,” said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at Enderle Group. “We saw that the old Apple TV is both the most successful in its class and the least successful Apple product, which shows how difficult the space really is.”
Despite the challenges, Apple could make inroads if the company inks deals with copyright holders for unique programming. Enderle said success would also mean deploying Apple Store gurus to install…
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