14 DAY TRIAL // Seemingly supporting a controversial passage from Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs, Tim Cook told interviewers at D11 (All Things D) that his company has a “grand vision” of what the television experience needs to be like.
In his book on Jobs, Isaacson wrote, “‘I'd like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use,’ he told me. 'It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud.' No longer would users have to fiddle with complex remotes for DVD players and cable channels. 'It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it’.”
The media has been clinging on those words for almost two years, hoping one day Tim Cook will fulfill Jobs’ dream and introduce a cool “iTV” product that does far more than the current Apple TV set-top box.
And according to Cook’s comments at the D11 conference yesterday, he might just do that. The only question is “When?”.
“There is a very grand vision of this,” Cook said, referring to Apple’s view of the television industry.
“When you look at the TV experience, it’s not an experience that I think very many people love,” Cook said. “It’s not one that has been brought up to date for this decade. It’s still an experience much like 10 years ago or 20 years ago.”
“We answered some of those [problems] — clearly not all of those — through Apple TV,” he continued.
He maintained that, while the Apple TV has been great for everyone, both Apple and consumers, “it’s also been good from a learning point of view for Apple,” said Cook.
During the interview, Cook evaded a question about the iTV being in the works for launch later this year, saying “I’m going to leave that alone. But it continues to be an area of great interest to us.”