He laid out the reasons NOT to build an Apple television at All Things D in 2010
Jobs at All Things D8
There's been a lot of talk about Apple (AAPL) launching a full-fledged interactive television ever since Walter Isaacson quoted Steve Jobs saying he'd "finally cracked it."
But before the company can successfully market such a product, it must overcome the formidable hurdles that Jobs laid out the year before he died at All Things D8.
He was asked in a Q&A what was needed to fix television's broken interface. It's not a problem of technology or vision, Jobs replied. It's the lack of a viable go-to-market strategy.
"The television industry," he explained, "has a subsidized business model that gives everybody a set top box for free or for $10 a month. And that pretty much squashes any opportunity for innovation."
The YouTube video that appeared in an earlier version of this story was removed at the request of All Things D. You can see their video, with 15-second pre-roll ad, here. The full 1:36 interview is still available on YouTube here. The TV section starts at the 1:31:40 mark.
All this talk about an Apple-branded TV set may be missing the point
The once and future Apple TV? Photo: Apple Inc.
Reading between the lines of the Wall Street Journal's story Monday about Apple's "assault" on the TV business, you can almost hear the desperation of the media executives who asked Apple (AAPL) to brief them on exactly what the wizards of Cupertino are up to.
These media executive -- which MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Dec 19, 2011 8:23 AM ET
There's a lot more to the relationship than the rumors of an Apple-branded TV suggest
Source: Jefferies
Credit AllThingsD's John Paczkowski for finding the most headline-worthy nugget in the report issued Tuesday by Jefferies analyst Peter Misek on his recent trip to Japan.
The thrust of Paczkowski's story -- Apple Television Could Be Ready for Commercial Production by Feb. 2012 -- was echoed Wednesday by more than a dozen writers who had only his brief item to MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Nov 24, 2011 8:53 AM ET
Sanford Bernstein's top Apple analyst is dubious about Steve Jobs' television dreams
Sacconaghi's vision of Apple TV 3.0. Click to enlarge.
Analysts have been arguing for ages about whether Apple (AAPL) is ever going to enter the $118 billion/year flat-screen TV market. But two things have changed in the past month:
1. Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs quotes him as saying he's "finally cracked" the problem of controlling an integrated MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Nov 4, 2011 12:18 PM ET
The solution Steve Jobs said he "finally cracked" could be a $6 billion business by 2014
Click to enlarge. Source: www.patentlyapple.com
In a note to clients released Monday, Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster seizes on remarks attributed to Steve Jobs in the biography published overnight as "another data point" to support a thesis he's been championing since 2009.
"I'd like to create an integrated television set," Jobs told Walter Isaacson, his authorized biographer. MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Oct 24, 2011 6:22 AM ETSpeculation and rumors about an Apple-branded television are rampant. Here's what most of them don't get right.
FORTUNE -- Thanks to Apple's famous secrecy, when it comes to the company's plans for future products, there's always more speculation than information.
That's the case with whatever Apple (AAPL) might be cooking up for television. It's obviously doing something, but nobody can quite tell what it is. Steve Jobs has publicly stated the company's MORE
Dan Mitchell, contributor - Sep 15, 2011 10:11 AM ET
Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster believes an iOS television will succeed Apple TV in 2012
Click to enlarge. Source: Patently Apple
In the wake of a dubious prediction published Wednesday (DailyTech: Apple to Enter TV Display Business Late This Year) and its dismantling (TechCrunch: That Apple Television Is Coming This August Alongside The iPhone Nano (And Santa)) Gene Munster could hardly be expected to hold his tongue.
No one has championed the idea of MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jun 23, 2011 10:57 AM ET
Steve Jobs may have found a way to get TV makers to put Apple's technology in their sets
Screen grab: Apple Inc.
Apple (AAPL) is talking to television makers about building a new generation of HDTV sets with Apple TV technology built in.
That's the thrust of the report Bloomberg posted Wednesday that cites "two people familiar with the project" and quotes a Pioneer vice president on the record as saying "Apple MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Mar 24, 2011 8:08 AM ET
ARM may be the only way for GoogleTV to get a foothold in the living room.
In November, Bloomberg issued a report saying that Samsung was going to be building GoogleTVs (GOOG), likely with Intel (INTC) chips.
That didn't make sense to me. Samsung was developing its own high power chips that are almost as fast as the standard Intel Atom processors that are inside GoogleTVs, except they are based on the ARM architecture and are extremely low MORE
Seth Weintraub - Feb 27, 2011 11:00 AM ET
Every day, the Fortune staff spends hours poring over tech stories, posts, and reviews from all over the Web to keep tabs on the companies that matter. We've assembled the day's most newsworthy bits below.
Photo: Yahoo
Reports are surfacing that Yahoo's upper management must cut between 10% and 20% of its 14,100-strong staff. Yahoo says via an official statement the reports are "misleading and inaccurate," but outlets like TechCrunch are sticking MORE
JP Mangalindan, Writer-Reporter - Nov 12, 2010 7:40 AM ETEvery morning, discover the companies, deals and trends in tech that are moving markets and making headlines. SUBSCRIBE
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| Company | Price | Change | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bank of America Corp... | 7.95 | -0.16 | -1.97% |
| Microsoft Corp | 31.27 | -0.17 | -0.54% |
| Ford Motor Co | 12.28 | -0.25 | -2.00% |
| General Electric Co | 19.39 | 0.17 | 0.88% |
| Citigroup Inc | 32.36 | -1.00 | -3.00% |
| Index | Last | Change | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dow | 12,938.67 | -27.02 | -0.21% |
| Nasdaq | 2,933.17 | -15.40 | -0.52% |
| S&P 500 | 1,357.66 | -4.55 | -0.33% |
| Treasuries | 2.00 | -0.04 | -1.96% |
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