More than a decade after abandoning the idea, Apple could be revisiting making its own television sets.
According to biographer Walter Isaacson, back in 2010 Steve Jobs proudly proclaimed, “I finally cracked it,” referring to his work on the Apple TV, adding that it would be “completely easy to use”.
Apple didn’t go much further with Jobs’s ‘hobby’, at least publicly, before pivoting to its current offering of the Apple TV 4K set-top box. Second time’s the charm?
Apple-made TVs on the way?
According to Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman, the Fruit Company could revisit the idea of an Apple-branded TV set, something Gurman says Apple is “evaluating”.
Previously, the Bloomberg journalist laid out how he believed the tech firm planned to conquer the rudderless smart home market, envisioning a future where all devices in a smart home are a part of, or compatible with, the Apple ecosystem. A fully Apple-made TV is a sensible fit with that in mind but its success would depend on Apple’s smart home strategy being successful first.
Considering the currently saturated TV market, there are sound reasons why the move could be overly ambitious. The Apple TV+ app is already present in most smart TVs, so the company would have to do some enormous innovation to differentiate the physical product. Jobs wasn’t convinced in 2010, has enough changed since then?
The Fruit Company does not publish sales figures for the Apple TV 4K but in 2022, the Apple TV+ streaming service only held 3% of the market. That 3% becomes even less impressive considering it includes people watching on Apple TV 4K and through the app on any other brand of smart TV.