If you’re hoping that Apple’s going to release an Apple Television alongside the new iPhone in September, you better stop holding your breath right now, especially if your name rhythms with Gene Munster.
According to Andy Hargreaves, a meeting with Peter Oppenheimer and Eddy Cue resulted in a pretty strong message: An Apple television is extremely unlikely in the near-term:
While Apple could almost certainly create a better user interface, Mr. Cue’s commentary suggested that this would be an incomplete solution from Apple’s perspective unless it could deliver content in a way that is different from the current multichannel pay TV model.
Apple needs to partner with most, if not all, of the major cable networks if they’re going to be able to take the television market by storm. While Netflix and Hulu work on the Apple TV set-top box currently on the market, for the project to go from a hobby to full-fledged assault on the television industry, a lot of companies need to buy in to Apple’s model. That’s going to take a lot of time, and a lot of elbow grease and cajoling to convince the major players that it’s the right thing to do. It could happen, but honestly, it’s going to take a while.
Source: Forbes
