The enduring Apple TV Fantasy
December 9, 201 Edited by Jean-Louis Gassée Monday Note
We all want TV Done Right, free of the Soviet Era set-top box, UI and opaque contracts. We imagine Apple will put all the pieces together. But what's desirable and "obvious" might not be so simple or soon ...
"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," Apple CEO Tim Cook told NBC's Brian Williams "It's an area of intense interest. I can't say more than that."
These words - and similar ones in a substantial Bloomberg interview - launched yet another round of frenzied speculation about the mythical Apple TV.
Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster _insists_ that an Apple TV in 2013 is a sure thing. "It will be the biggest thing in consumer electronics since the smartphone". (Of course, Munster has been saying this every year for the last three years ...)
Another analyst, Wells Fargo's Maynard Um, agrees that the device is inevitable, if only because a full-fledged television is "more in tune" with Apple than a simple set-top box.
Hmmm?