First of all Apple already makes an "Apple TV" they call it an iPad. What is an iPad if not a portable television along with an internet device, a music device, an ereader and a thousand other magical things.
I actually own an Apple TV, the little box thing that connects to my television and communicates with my iPhone and my ancient Windows computer. I don't even really know how it communicates with my computer because my computer is not wireless, it's hooked up to a wireless router via a cable and my Apple TV found it somehow.
Do you know how awesome that is? I literally plugged my little $100 device in and it worked without me doing much of anything. The same way my iPhone does a thousand little things really well, like email, apps and controlling my Apple TV.
Ok Ok, I'm plodding along towards a point. If Apple were to start making what we generally conceive of as "televisions" what would they look like and how would they work?
Or put another way, in a perfect world what would I like to see Apple build next? The perfect television would have almost no wires. It would connect to the computer the iPhone and the iPad, of course, but it would also connect somehow, magically, to surround sound systems. I know Sonos already does some of this so Apple could either do it themselves or connect with a partner.
It would have apps but it would not necessarily have a touch screen. Microsoft showed us that big tables are not cool. BTW, Hey Apple, why doesn't my $100 Apple TV have apps, get with it guys.
Hulu? Netflix? Youtube? Check. Check. Check.
But all that is standard, that's like when you go to buy a car and the salesman brags about air conditioning. It's expected. In order for this to work Apple has to do the unexpected. I think they have to do one of two things and preferably both things before they roll out an Apple TV.
First, they gotta fix iTunes. Shut up. Yes, iTunes is the most successful music store in the world, or some such. Yes, it's one of tent-pole items that has brought Apple back from the brink of destruction Yes, it's worked well for a decade.
But, it's horribly, horribly broken. You know it. I know it. If the rumors of iCloud are true Apple knows it too and is planning some sort of major fix. Not that anyone asked but here's what I would do.
Part 1: Subscriptions. The public wants to pay $10 or $20 bucks a month, every month for unlimited access to music, movies and television shows. Heck, if the deal is sweet enough and there is enough content you might get the public up to $40 a month. If you have a cable package, and you know you have a cable package, you're paying much more than $40 a month right now for a system that won't let you do all the things the technology currently promises.
I don't understand why the content providers think this system is worse, and have been fighting it do hard. I mean, it's May and I have bought two albums online all year. I have bought no DVDs. I haven't bought a DVD since I got Netflix but Netflix and the content providers get my 15 bucks a month, forever, until the end of time. Guys, what do you want? Money or FOREVER MONEY.
Also, in that scenario Apple declares war on all of the cable and satellite operators in the world. It could work, they could win but I don't know if they can get out of the gate correctly because they need to sign up most of the major television and movie studios in Hollywood, who just happen to be deathly afraid of those cable operators.
Part 2: Make a deal with a cable operator. You know why Google TV didn't work? Because Google made a deal with Sony and Logitech. That's the same mistake Apple made in the beginning when it built a phone with Motorola. Motorola, Sony and Logitech are hardware companies. You don't need hardware, you need content. So, Apple makes a deal with Time Warner Cable or Comcast or preferably, multiple carriers. Now, my television talks to my computer which connects via the internet to my cable account which tells my television what channels I have.
So what do we do if the internet goes down? Does the television go down too? Probably. However, I see one workaround. You know that cable that is currently running to your television or your cable box? Well, we've killed the cable box but not the cable. So how about running it to a much smaller box that I can hide somewhere close to a wall. Under a piece of furniture. Now, my new box exists solely to tell my television which cable company I'm hooked up to.
I don't point a remote at it and change the channels, otherwise, what was the point of all this?
The point, in case you are wondering, is a wireless world. In this glorious paradise my television is no longer connected to a cable box, an audio receiver for surround sound and an internet/gaming device.
It can do all those things and more but it does it without all those ugly boxes that currently sit under my flat-screen. So what about gaming? I hear my friends on Xbox Live shouting?
Well, Apple's answer to gaming is the iPad. Microsoft wants you to get a work out with Kinect. In 10 years will kids reach for a traditional game remote and mash buttons? Or will they reach for an iPad or an iPhone and connect with the game on their television that way? Or will they just shoot at the monsters with their fingers, the way we always did in the backyard?
I've been conditioned, through 25 years of playing video games to grab something like the original Nintendo remote and mash buttons until I win. But I bet my kids won't even know what it means to mash a button that isn't on a touchscreen. When I tell them about buttons, actual physical things that got pressed on controllers that needed batteries, they'll look at me the way I looked at my dad when he explained that there used to only be three television stations.
"Yes son," he said. "And most of the time we only got one station really well. The other two were so fuzzy you couldn't watch them."
Wait till I tell my fictional kids that when I was their age I had to get up off the couch to change the channel.
Alright, this has gone on much longer than I expected but indulge me, fictional reader, as I make two quick final points.
Cost:
32 inch $999.
42 inch or somewhere above 46 inch? 52 inch? $1499.
Also, while I love Apple any company who does these things is likely to get my money. They are also likely to "win."
