Just when you thought Apple rumors were getting out of hand, we’re now getting reports from major news outlets that Rogers, and Bell already have the rumoured Apple Television in their testing labs.
From The Globe and Mail:
They’re not closed to doing it with one [company] or doing it with two,” said one source who is familiar with the talks. They’re looking for a partner. They’re looking for someone with wireless and broadband capabilities …Another source, also speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Rogers and Bell already have the product in their labs.
That’s really the only new information in the entire article, which eventually goes on to rehash all the rumors we’ve heard around the Internet the last couple of months.
Curious about the veracity of the claims? We are too. If Apple is trying to get companies like Rogers and Bell to partner with the company to bring content to its new-age television viewing device, they would at some point have to get their hands on it. That being said, hands-on would be extremely limited, and only occur at the highests levels, making it unlikely that information would leak from Rogers or Bell. Apple sends out iPhone models to carriers before the phones are released on networks, but they’re extremely locked down, and provide very little detail about what the phones look like. The same would happen with these televisions, if they actually exist.
Rogers and Bell aren’t the first companies to be approached either. It was reported earlier this year that CBS’s CEO let it slip that Apple was approaching networks to get content locked up for the Apple Television. With all the chatter, it certainly sounds like Apple’s out there trying to make deals before an Apple Television gets released. It could be a while though; there’s no timeline or indication of when a product could ship.
Read Rogers, BCE vying for a bite of Apple’s iTV on The Globe and Mail
