For years there has been ongoing speculation about Apple’s potential move into the television market. The company’s interest was made most explicit by CEO Steve Jobs, who told biographer Walter Isaacson that the current TV experience was “brain dead.”
“I should be able to walk into a room, ignore the remote controls, and say, ‘OK TV. Put on Morning Joe.’ And I should be able to get it when I want it, easily,” Isaacson quoted Jobs during a web-exclusive interview.
The central question is how Apple could disrupt a crowded television market in the same decisive way it transformed other categories.
A few years ago, Siri might have seemed like the natural breakthrough for TV. Voice control remains important, but the market has evolved and competitors such as Google now offer robust voice-driven TV experiences. That reduces the likelihood that voice alone would be Apple’s defining advantage.
Design undoubtedly matters to Apple. Sir Jony Ive is widely believed to have explored prototype concepts for an “iTV,” and some insiders claim to have seen early designs. Strong industrial design could attract buyers, but true disruption typically requires a combination of design and a fresh user experience—something on the scale of the iPhone’s reinvention of the smartphone.
Jobs highlighted a structural problem with the TV ecosystem: “The television industry fundamentally has a subsidized business model that gives everybody a set top box for free, or for $10 a month. And that pretty much squashes innovation because no one is willing to buy a set top box.”
He added: “You can say … I’ll add another little box with another one. You end up with a table full of remotes, cluster full of boxes, bunch of UIs. The only way that’s ever going to change is if you really go back to square one and you tear up the set top box and design it with a consistent UI and deliver it to the customer in a way they’re willing to pay for it.”
Ironically, Apple’s existing Apple TV box has been described as “another little box” that offers limited extra functionality compared with competing devices like Roku or TiVo. Apple long considered the product “a hobby,” but recent moves suggest the company may be preparing a more ambitious push into TV hardware.
Apple’s hiring of former CableLabs executive Jean-Francois Mulé to work on “something big” signals that the company is taking the opportunity seriously. One major barrier is industry dynamics: gaining cooperation from cable and content providers is challenging, especially when a new product threatens established set-top box models that many providers subsidize.
At the same time, streaming services are reshaping the content landscape. Netflix’s success with high-quality original programming has shifted power away from traditional cable networks and demonstrated that streaming platforms can become essential partners for device makers. As streaming services expand their influence and reach, collaboration between Apple and major streamers could become more attractive for both sides.
If Apple wants to meaningfully change the television market, it will likely need a combination of exceptional industrial design, a unified and intuitive user interface, compelling content partnerships, and a business model that convinces consumers and providers to adopt a new approach. Whether Apple can pull all those pieces together remains an open question.
What do you think about the idea of an Apple television set? Can they disrupt this industry?