In December 2013, NBC’s Brian Williams interviewed Apple’s CEO Tim Cook. Williams asked Cook, “What can you do for television watching what do you know that’s going to change the game that we don’t know yet. Cook’s response: It’s a market we see that’s been left behind.” He further noted that “It’s an area of intense interest I can’t say more than that.” Was Cook Lying or is a tale out of a new book titled Haunted Empire a make-believe accounting of what Steve Jobs said about making an HDTV? Do we trust Apple’s CEO who recently stated that Apple TV is no longer a hobby, or a reported account that’s about three years old at this moment in time? You be the judge.
Today, Business Insider reported on a segment of a new book titled “Haunted Empire: Apple after Steve Jobs” by former Wall Street Journal’s Yukari Iwatani Kane. The segment recounted an Apple executive retreat. The report states that “One person asked if Apple was going to release a television next. There were already rumors all over the place that it was Apple’s next conquest. Yukari says ‘Jobs didn’t hesitate.'” He said, “No.”
Reportedly Steve Jobs stated that “TV is a terrible business. They don’t turn over and the margins suck.” Though he reportedly said that he did want to control the living room and went on to state that Apple TV would remain a hobby until Apple got all the content it needed.
Interestingly in February of this year, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook admitted that Apple TV was now too big to a hobby racking up a billion dollars in sales. Apple TV is in fact closer to what Steve Jobs pointed to as being a pivotal point in the evolution of Apple TV: “Until Apple got all the content it needed.”
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