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Steve Jobs on HDTV, "I finally cracked it."

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Joe

Member
by "cracked it" im assuming he meant he found a way to drive up prices, monetize every aspect of it, strongarm content owners, and market it as a lifestyle change.
 
D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
Apple haters are hilarious. People who buy Apple products aren't all ignorant about the alternatives. They simply prefer the aesthetic, design and simplicity of Apple products. When has an Apple product ever forced a more complicated/enthusiast product out of the market? You've got nothing to worry about. You should be at least somewhat thankful that, whenever Apple releases a product that becomes extremely popular, it forces other companies to up their efforts and actually try to make attractive, user-friendly designs.
 
Joe said:
by "cracked it" im assuming he meant he found a way to drive up prices, monetize every aspect of it, strongarm content owners, and market it as a lifestyle change.
Zzz.

I'm still having fun reading about how you guys think putting an Apple TV into a TV is a smart move. "Well shit, I didn't buy that thing when it was $99, but now that it's in a TV, I'm just going to trash this one and buy a brand new one."
 

noah111

Still Alive
I wonder... this TV will be an epic fail if it wouldn't allow multiple inputs, i.e. connecting a PS3/360/Wii to it. Has this already been discussed?
 

Tobor

Member
Liu Kang Baking A Pie said:
Zzz.

I'm still having fun reading about how you guys think putting an Apple TV into a TV is a smart move. "Well shit, I didn't buy that thing when it was $99, but now that it's in a TV, I'm just going to trash this one and buy a brand new one."
If Munster's estimates are accurate, and 1.4 million TVs a year could add 6 billion in revenue, then the question becomes why wouldn't they do it?

They could easily sell 1.4 million a year, right?

The biggest issue I see is space in Apple stores. I don't know how they crack that one.
 
Tobor said:
If Munster's estimates are accurate, and 1.4 million TVs a year could add 6 billion in revenue, then the question becomes why wouldn't they do it?

They could easily sell 1.4 million a year, right?

The biggest issue I see is space in Apple stores. I don't know how they crack that one.
It's not about how much they can sell, but why they would sell it. Apple doesn't enter a brand-new market unless they plan to flip it over, especially with Steve gone and everyone watching their next moves closely.

If Steve Jobs said he's cracked it, it means he's thought up something much different than a Sony TV with an Apple TV inside of it. Any of us could have cracked that particular puzzle five years ago.
 

kehs

Banned
Tobor said:
If Munster's estimates are accurate, and 1.4 million TVs a year could add 6 billion in revenue, then the question becomes why wouldn't they do it?

They could easily sell 1.4 million a year, right?

The biggest issue I see is space in Apple stores. I don't know how they crack that one.

Smaller tvs.
 

Tobor

Member
Liu Kang Baking A Pie said:
It's not about how much they can sell, but why they would sell it. Apple doesn't enter a brand-new market unless they plan to flip it over, especially with Steve gone and everyone watching their next moves closely.
Fair point, and I don't have an answer to that. Any new interface or feature I can think of is do-able with the existing Apple TV. Increased margins and price point would allow for beefier hardware, but I don't think they'd need it. There's always Apple design, but I'm not sure that's enough of a reason by itself.

So yeah, maybe they have an idea we're missing because we're not Apple?
 

Previous

check out my new Swatch
Question: Lots of people (including me) buy a new computer/phone/tablet/iPhone or iPod every year or two, but TV's? most people don't upgrade their TV's every year or so, what magical device could he have invented to make people do just that?
 

exarkun

Member
Gaf continues to be obsessed with Steve Jobs. I don't even understand how this quote and the link provided illuminates anything other than he though about HDTV's and how to provide some kind of service to it. If there were some specifics, that would be great.

Can we just make a Steve Jobs thread or Apple OT that all this nearly needless talk can go into?
 

Tobor

Member
Previous said:
Question: Lots of people (including me) buy a new computer/phone/tablet/iPhone or iPod every year or two, but TV's? most people don't upgrade their TV's every year or so, what magical device could he have invented to make people do just that?
You buy a new computer every year or two?
 

DjangoReinhardt

Thinks he should have been the one to kill Batman's parents.
I'm way more interested in the potential for Apple to disrupt the content delivery model(s) of the TV market than I am in the hardware.
 
DjangoReinhardt said:
I'm way more interested in the potential for Apple to disrupt the content delivery model(s) of the TV market than I am in the hardware.

Ditto. I think if anything, it will just be a box that integrates with any TV but you can use it as an interface to control all aspects of the TV. Much like GoogleTV did, but got screwed over by the content providers.
 
IIRC, Steve Jobs said the #1 issue with an Apple TV is the cable companies refusing to cooperate.

Maybe he finally "cracked it" in that way. In a way that "CableCard" never managed to. In the way that he plowed right through AT&T's traditions with the iPhone.

Maybe you'll finally be able to plug your digital cable directly into your TV without that awful, primitive, unresponsive, fucking digital cable box.
 
lunarworks said:
IIRC, Steve Jobs said the #1 issue with an Apple TV is the cable companies refusing to cooperate.

Maybe he finally "cracked it" in that way. In a way that "CableCard" never managed to. In the way that he plowed right through AT&T's traditions with the iPhone.

Maybe you'll finally be able to plug your digital cable directly into your TV without that awful, primitive, unresponsive, fucking digital cable box.

And by "cracked it" he probably meant "spent tons of money."
 

X-Frame

Member
DjangoReinhardt said:
I'm way more interested in the potential for Apple to disrupt the content delivery model(s) of the TV market than I am in the hardware.

This!

Steve getting excited and saying "I finally cracked it!" gives me hope of something good happening.

I might as well wait a few more months before I buy a new HDTV now.
 

Kosmo

Banned
X-Frame said:
This!

Steve getting excited and saying "I finally cracked it!" gives me hope of something good happening.

I might as well wait a few more months before I buy a new HDTV now.

The problem is, Steve isn't here to make the deals. One thing the book has constantly reminded me (Only 100 pages in or so) is that Steve had the ability to say "this is shit" or "fuck you" if a deal wasn't right - literally. Not having that is going to be difficult for Apple going forward.

Like when he went to Xerox PARC and they were trying to slow play him by showing him stuff that they knew he didn't want to see he just flat out said "What the fuck is this? Quit wasting my time" and made them show him what was agreed to.
 
I know it's a pipe dream, but if Apple (or anyone else) can deliver me a TV where I can subscribe to whatever channels I want, I'm all in.

The hardware isn't the issue, really. It's the "software", how you interact with the TV, and the distribution method.

Subscribing to a few channels you want, using Siri to set up DVR or find shows you're interested in, iOS and iPad/iPhone to play games...
 
D

Deleted member 22576

Unconfirmed Member
I don't know. I'd be interested in what educational content they could get. Its pretty much all I watch on Netflix anyhow. But even they don't have that great of a collection. If there was an easy and cheap way to get back catalogue discovery and history channel content. And all that kind of stuff I would be into that.

Its a segment of the content market I don't see discussed very often.
 
I don't see TV being that tough of a nut to crack as far as the hardware.

Make it updatable like iPad/iPhone, give it the App Store. If you have that you're already wayyyyy ahead of TVs on the market.

The distribution/rights part of the puzzle however...
 

Raistlin

Post Count: 9999
rezuth said:
At least we know they would use awesome panels if they made an actual TV.
And we know this why exactly?

IPS panels are not particularly well-suited for video playback. Actually in their current implementation, they are arguably the least preferred LCD tech for this use-case.
 

GG-Duo

Member
I'm honestly not very optimistic that this will come out in the near future.

As everyone has said, TV sets are a different market. Upgrade cycles are longer. The experience is traditionally passive. The content is a mess. Content producers are supported by ads and Apple doesn't have a great ad platform.

I'm sure Steve would have made a simple, beautiful hardware device - but unless he has the deals with content providers it doesn't mean much - and Apple always thinks about the end-to-end experience. And if Apple really has the deals, then I'm sure TV executives would be leaking stuff to the press by now. We're not hearing anything.

My best guess: It probably just means it's AppleTV with Apps that you can remote control with an iPad. It's still a game changer since TV companies, or Hulu, or Netflix can still make channels and provide videos. But I don't quite see how that's different from PS3/Xbox.

The bottom-line is that the hardware isn't the most interesting part of this discussion.
 
Ninja Scooter said:
I just want a cable box with a UI that isn't horribly clunky and slow, and that finally does away with numbered channels. I don't want to remember that ESPN is channel 5540, just list it as ESPN, and put the channels in alphabetical order.

This is my problem with cable boxes. Half the time, I hit "guide" and the guide comes up like 5 seconds later. Or I enter 1008 and it turns to 8, ignoring the first three numbers. Almost every one I've had from Time Warner has been a piece of junk.
 

omgkitty

Member
I would totally buy an Apple Television seeing the quality of their computer monitors, but damn if their TV wouldn't be hella expensive.
 

Kosmo

Banned
Maybe Ive is the guy to replace Jobs as the idea man. In the design of the iMac:

Famed industrial designer Jony Ive was tasked with coming up with the successor to the candy-color translucent iMac, which was the bestselling desktop computer for some time. He wanted to develop a flat-screen monitor with the components integrated into the display unit. Jobs did not like that idea, and he invited Ive over to his backyard at home to brainstorm. The sunflowers in the garden maintained by Powell Jobs inspired the design of the iMac, which had a display connected to a dome base by a metal stem. When computer parts became compact enough a few years later, Ive's initial concept was used in the models that replaced the sunflower iMac.
 

borghe

Loves the Greater Toronto Area
It just occurred to me.... Jobs actually got his final "one more thing" with this book if the TV thing is to be believed.

I honestly believe the man was one of the greatest marketers of all time. I mean really... from when he took his final medical leave, to dying the day after the 4s is announced, to the "one more thing" effect of "announcing" a real AppleTV in his autobiography. There had to have been some sort of planning to a lot of this stuff.
 

noah111

Still Alive
I've is definitely the future of Apple in terms of product design and that overall 'apple quality' we know. How eloquently can someone design a TV though? Will it just be the iPad but huge? :lol
 
GG-Duo said:
I'm honestly not very optimistic that this will come out in the near future.

As everyone has said, TV sets are a different market. Upgrade cycles are longer. The experience is traditionally passive. The content is a mess. Content producers are supported by ads and Apple doesn't have a great ad platform.

I'm sure Steve would have made a simple, beautiful hardware device - but unless he has the deals with content providers it doesn't mean much - and Apple always thinks about the end-to-end experience. And if Apple really has the deals, then I'm sure TV executives would be leaking stuff to the press by now. We're not hearing anything.

My best guess: It probably just means it's AppleTV with Apps that you can remote control with an iPad. It's still a game changer since TV companies, or Hulu, or Netflix can still make channels and provide videos. But I don't quite see how that's different from PS3/Xbox.

The bottom-line is that the hardware isn't the most interesting part of this discussion.

If you watch the 2010 d8 interview, Jobs is very clear about the inherent problems of Apple entering the tv market. If he claimed to find a resolution then it's certainly going to address those problems and won't be a glorified Apple tv set. The only problem is whether Apple has the negotiating capital without Jobs to make this plan work and create a possible game changer.
 

Tobor

Member
Kosmo said:
Maybe Ive is the guy to replace Jobs as the idea man. In the design of the iMac:

Famed industrial designer Jony Ive was tasked with coming up with the successor to the candy-color translucent iMac, which was the bestselling desktop computer for some time. He wanted to develop a flat-screen monitor with the components integrated into the display unit. Jobs did not like that idea, and he invited Ive over to his backyard at home to brainstorm. The sunflowers in the garden maintained by Powell Jobs inspired the design of the iMac, which had a display connected to a dome base by a metal stem. When computer parts became compact enough a few years later, Ive's initial concept was used in the models that replaced the sunflower iMac.
Ive is not the idea guy. He's one of the best designers in the world, if not the best, but how does that translate into understanding the future of the industry?

As I've said before, It's Forstall if it's anybody.
 
Sentry said:
I've is definitely the future of Apple in terms of product design and that overall 'apple quality' we know. How eloquently can someone design a TV though? Will it just be the iPad but huge? :lol

iPhone auto correct strikes again?
 

CrankyJay

Banned
Liu Kang Baking A Pie said:
Uh, yes.

Channels aren't necessarily complicated, but they're dated. We flip through channels to find something to watch. Why don't we just find something to watch by choosing something from a listing of everything on one screen? Or some other idea that doesn't involve going through an unchanging numbered list one by one.

This is a genius idea. Maybe they could call it a guide...and put a guide button on the remote!
 

Kosmo

Banned
Tobor said:
Ive is not the idea guy. He's one of the best designers in the world, if not the best, but how does that translate into understanding the future of the industry?

As I've said before, It's Forstall if it's anybody.

True, but in addition to Steve's ability to see where things are goin,g he had a very good aesthetic with not putting extraneous things on his products. No one person can replace him. so it will be a combo of someone like Forstall with the tech and Ive with the design.
 

LCfiner

Member
CrankyJay said:
This is a genius idea. Maybe they could call it a guide...and put a guide button on the remote!

every cable box guide I've used has been a piece of shit. it's either a listing of channels or a cumbersome alphabetical listing of shows that you need to scroll by a few at a time. it's terrible.

if Apple has anything to add to this market, it's making the experience easy, fun and fast.

My doubts about them entering the market has been about how they can secure content. they would need to have some leverage over the content providers to force them to offer everything a la carte, cheap and fast.
 

noah111

Still Alive
DoctorWho said:
iPhone auto correct strikes again?
FUCK. :lol didn't catch that.

How far into the book does Jobs start talking about Apple's future etc? Are there any parts where he speaks to him as he knows death is very near?
 

Tobor

Member
Kosmo said:
True, but in addition to Steve's ability to see where things are goin,g he had a very good aesthetic with not putting extraneous things on his products. No one person can replace him. so it will be a combo of someone like Forstall with the tech and Ive with the design.
Add in Cook to run the overall company and we arrive at exactly the arrangement Jobs has left behind.
 
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