Steve Jobs on TV: 'no one wants to buy a box'
By Ross Miller 
posted June 1st 2010 10:56PM
posted June 1st 2010 10:56PM
"Hi, I'm from Hillcrest Labs... do you think it's time to throw out the interface for TV? When will Apple do something there?"
The problem with innovation in the TV industry is the go to market strategy. The TV industry has a subsidized model that gives everyone a set top box for free. So no one wants to buy a box. Ask TiVo, ask Roku, ask us... ask Google in a few months.
So all you can do is ADD a box to the TV. You just end up with a table full of remotes, a cluster of boxes... and that's what we have today. The only way that's going to change is if you tear up the set top box, give it a new UI, and get it in front of consumers in a way they're going to want it. The TV is going to lose in our eyes until there is a better go to market strategy... otherwise you're just making another TiVo. [you can't just partner with providers because] providers are local... it's a Tower of Babel problem...
'No one wants to buy a box' ... indeed no one wants to buy an Apple TV.
@mukatuna
It kind of says that in the story, if you cared to read it.
hey apple why dont you reinvent air, air sucks i mean all you do is breathe breathe breathe it. It needs innovation
@Evanblive91
Agreed. Clearly your brain needs more than plain air!... i can see where you are coming from.
That's why GoogleTV will be implemented in all Sony BluRay players. Because that's obviously a box that consumers want....
Nobody wants a box. I dont want a box. And that is why TV manufacturers are going to integrate it into their products. Ask google in a year or two.
Ask Twix, ask Popcorn Hour, ask all who sold VHS and DVD players...
People might buy a box if it can do more than look nice, like actually play some media content without conversion, etc. Still, the price is a huge issue, with laptops and nettops being so inexpensive.
The future of the TV is the Internet.
They already stream recorded TV content over the Internet, so it makes sense that the next step would be full TV channels streaming. Rather than attempting to transfer the Internet and the computer into the TV, they should transfer the TV into the Internet and from there it will go to the devices.
This just confirmed the iPhone OS Apple TV. When he said "Nobody wants to read anymore" he came out with iBooks. The next logical step for him is to make another box for your television despite "no one wanting it".
And no one wants to read either. Steve is such an egotistical ass clown.
What Steve Jobs says is true, if you want a TV box, you will need a new user interface (like Mac Os Y for exemple) and of course an amazing remote control.
Check this concept of iBoard for Apple Tv.
http://www.hb-improving.com/us/apple/exemples_apple.html
Steve Jobs outsources another death today over at Foxconn. - Another Foxconn Employee Dies, After Working 34-Hours Straight
I'll put my chips in with "no one wants to buy Steve Job's TV box". I think he might have turned it into a win if he didn't try to make it an iTunes-only box. Just letting Netflix on it would have made it useful. He could have offered a drive less box and dropped the price a bit.
I don't want anything that old person is pushing. Get him to a hospital or something.
this makes me laugh anything that fails for apple is just a hobby like apple tv anything that takes is magical and innovating
My cable company (fios) doesn't give me a stb for free. Where do I sign up for one?
in 5 years, when there are a slew of TVs with 'boxes' built in, some of you might realize how stupid you sound defending your 360s, Tivos, cable boxes etc. I have 2 boxes (a cable co. DVR, and a PS3), and though they suffice, I can see how an integrated 'box' (say google TV) could be the bees knees...
@Nicnac
In 5 years, my current TVs should still be perfectly usable. I should not have to replace a $5000 device to get $200 of functionality. THAT is the value of "a box". I don't have to hasten the death of the planet in order to have the current tech.
The sad thing is that they might have such an all-singing-all dancing TV in 5 years but they still won't have a means to integrate all of your devices together. Your TV still won't be able to send commands to your cable box or stereo.
Steve Jobs needs to stop making blanket statements about the computer/electronics market. Until someone sells a TV with a receiver or amp/preamp, blu ray player, hard drive, and cable HDTV tuner built in for a reasonable price, I'm fine with having a couple "boxes".
Holy shit. I think Steve Jobs just said someting I agree with. I'm amazed.
The ps3 and xbox 360 are the intergrated boxes. If they had live sports they'd be damn near perfect.
And I don't want everything put into my tv. If one thing stops working I have to give up everything while it's being fixed.
@Iamperfect2
The problem with the Xbox 360 (and I'm not sure about the PS3) is the total lack of support for formats like MKV. That's the deal-breaker for me in using my Xbox 360 as a video server.
However, it's great for music and games. WDTV HD does the rest.
Steve, dude, I *love* my boxes.
I love my Roku. I love my Xbox 360. I *especially* love my WDTV HD, and I'm happy to have them in my entertainment center.
I can watch any of my movies or TV show collections without having to fish out a disc or get authorization from Apple.
I can listen to all my music on my network without needing to have Apple grant permission to move my music to a new device.
I've had an Apple TV, and frankly, unless the next Apple TV supports ALL formats, completely removes the tether to Apple, and allows me to add storage without a fuss, it falls short of what I've got in my Roku/WDTV/Xbox 360 combination.
I'm more and more glad I swore off Apple products and sold them all last year.
I guess Steve has been reading my blog! It is something I have been saying for months. Now that you can get your TV, BluRay or home theater already equipped with netflix, youtube, hulu and whatever, why clutter the home with another box, another remote and another way to configure and confuse yourself when you want to watch something.
Can you post more details, transcript, audio or video so I can link to it?
techmarketintel.wordpress.com
why buy any of this crap.... google tv apple tv or w.e when you got netflix and hulu on the 360?.... next thing you know 360 will be rolling out a 1tb hd and a dvr app
I think his comments are right on the money.
I want to scrap my whole TV set-up and start again.
I've been researching what is available and everything is flawed.
I think the problem is that the boxes have to be cheap otherwise no one will buy them. To make them cheap they need to have aspects of proprietary to get back your subsidising funds.
This makes it flawed because it becomes very limited.
It's worse down here in Australia where the internet is comparatively slow and expensive.
Down here 1080P video streaming over the internet simply won't work for a lot of people.
I don't know that I agree with Mr. Jobs.
A DVD/Blu Ray player can be considered a set top box that plays content on a TV and that has seen broad market acceptance.
The problem with Apple TV is communication of what it does to consumers and problems with availability of content/restrictions on rentals.
If Apple managed to secure good deals with most major TV networks, charged a monthly fee, and billed themselves as a purely on-demand alternative to cable TV then I think consumers would be much more receptive to the Apple TV.
Naturally, Apple doesn't have such an agreement with networks and their movie rental rules are a bit silly: 24-hour expirations and you can't rent new release videos like you can DVD's, you have to wait a month in some cases.
That's what really drags the Apple TV down.