Cook at D10 firmly refused to mention explicitly any plans the company might have to manufacture what is already referred to as an "iTV. " He did say, however, that television is "an area of intense interest for Apple."
Many believe Apple has already secured or is working to secure partnerships for streaming and syndicated content that would be available on such a device. Other rumors claim a potential Apple television set will feature Siri-like voice control and may even accept touchless gesture input.
Currently, Apple offers a product called the Apple TV, a set-top box that the user connects to a separate television to watch streaming media from sites like YouTube and Netflix, as well as content purchased from iTunes. While the device hasn't enjoyed the success of the MacBook, iPhone or iPad, the Apple TV may provided clues to the company's plans for new products and strategies.
Cook noted for Mossberg and Swisher that customers bought 2.8 million Apple TV devices last year, and that Apple sold nearly as many set top boxes in the early months of 2012. According to Business Insider's Henry Blodget, this puts Apple on track to sell as many as 8 million Apple TV devices before the year is out. Comparing those figures to Apple's sales of iPhones (35.1 million), iPads (11.8 million) and Macs (4 million) during the first three months of 2012 reinforce Steve Jobs' assertion that the Apple TV is merely a "hobby" device, an assertion Jobs made at the 2007 D conference. Nevertheless, Tim Cook stressed on Tuesday night, "Apple is not a hobby kind of company."
"Our tendency is to do very few things," said Cook, according to a live blog provided by The Verge. "And, if something creeps in and isn't a big success, we get it out of the way and put our energies on something else. Apple TV though, you see what we've done. We've stuck in this."
The question is, why would Apple hold on to a product that would never be the runaway success that some of its larger product lines have become?
