Apple CEO Claims Apple TV Sales Accelerating – Is This More Than a Hobby?
You know that little thing Apple released a while back called the Apple TV? Maybe you’ve heard of it. Given that nearly 6 million Apple TV devices have been sold, chances are actually pretty good you may even own one.
Apparently that may just be an experiment Apple is conducting (year right) with a product being described that way because it isn’t very successful (which I suppose may appear to be true when you sit those sales figures next to the 66 million iPads that they expect to ship this year).
So what comes next for the Apple TV? Does anything come next? When asked to discuss Apple’s much-rumored plans for a new television of some sort, Apple CEO Tim Cook doesn’t say much. One thing Cook does elaborate on was indicated during an interview regarding Apple’s general R&D philosophy:
“We’re not a hobby kind of company. Our tendency is to do very few things; put all of our wood behind a few arrows. And if something creeps in and isn’t a big success, we move on and put it away.”
So what is Cook saying? I think if you read between the lines, he made it clear that if the Apple TV wasn’t part of some greater evolutionary plan… they wouldn’t have kept it alive. Cook has been noted as calling television technology “of intense interest” to his company, giving a breath of life to the speculation that Apple is nearing the release of a revolutionary iTV product.
Let’s be realistic: Apple doesn’t make televisions. They do make monitors. They do design beautiful and usable interfaces for various devices. They also pride themselves on an unparalelled level of interactivity between their products. So putting your mind to work, what do you think that might mean? It seems likely to me that next generation Apple displays may have Apple TV functionality built right in. It also seems likely to me that the improved graphic capabilities of their iPad and iPhone combined with AirPlay may just make ANY television into an ‘iTV’. Just sayin’.
[via AllThingsD]
