iPhone, iMac, iPod, soon to be iTablet? All revolutionary products, all of them changed their respective segment of the market. But for me there’s one thing missing. One last product that you can bet your bottom dollar Steve Jobs has his eye on. That product is the humble television. On the face of it, it’s almost too obvious. It has all the credentials, long standing product category, heavily commoditised marketplace, lack of recent innovation etc etc. This is prime Apple territory. Apple only compete in markets where they can charge a premium over the rest of the market and where they can produce quality leading products. So far all the boxes are ticked and just like they did with the iPod, Apple must be licking their lips at the thought of swooping in and revolutionising the market overnight. In fact I’d be surprised if Apple Chief Designer, Jonathan Ive is not locked in his office sculpting some minimalist designs right now.
Some of you by now might be thinking this is all very well but Apple already produce a product called Apple TV. Apple TV is essentially a plug-in box for your existing TV that allows you to stream content from your computer to your TV. This is a worthwhile learning process for apple, but for me, why would you want to plug something into your TV when you can just have it built in, complete with stylish Apple design cues. Apple know this and for this reason I would expect the next Apple TV product to be an actual TV.
Someday we will all be getting TV over IP. This may be some way off yet but for the early adopters this is a very real prospect. In fact you can now get Sky TV streamed through your Xbox. Apple already have all the credentials to lead the IPTV charge with the huge popularity of iTunes providing movie rentals and downloadable TV shows. Any Apple TV will obviously have this built in, along with a good sized hard drive for the DVR capabilities of Sky or cable tv etc. and wireless internet connectivity. It will inevitably utilise Apple’s App store with a host of TV related apps like news, weather, email etc. However it’s 100% definite that any Apple TV will be a walled garden with a homescreen running a version of OSX similar to the forthcoming tablet. As well as providing on-demand TV, and your entire music library I would expect some sort of casual gaming capability through the App store.
Any move by Apple into the TV space would be followed closely by Microsoft who clearly have a vested interest in the battle for the living room with the Xbox, and with their deal with Sky they clearly have Apple in their sights. Likewise Sony will be watching this space closely as they perhaps stand to lose the most out of an Apple TV. Of course they have great heritage with their Bravia and Playstation products but Apple would surely take a big chunk out of the Bravia market share.
At this point you look at who’s hovering in the background and surprise surprise it’s Google. While they may not be interested in product, they are interested in “organising the worlds data” as per their mission statement. If that content is Television and programming then you bet they will be there or there abouts with a vested interest selling contextual ads anywhere they can.
The amazing think about Apple is that people, (like me) will invest in a new TV because it’s Apple, because it will be built to high standards, because it will be effortlessly easy to use and because it will be seamlessly compatible with all other Apple devices. No doubt I’ll be able to doc my iPod / iPhone in the top of the TV or send movies straight to my TV wirelessly from my Macbook and for that reason I can’t wait for Apple to hurry up and build this product.
Let the battle for the living room commence.