Tim Bajarin: Four guiding principles for understanding Apple’s TV strategy

“Until Apple releases whatever Apple TV device it has in the works, most of what is said about it from outsiders is pretty much speculation,” Tim Bajarin writes for TIME Magazine. “However, I do believe that given Apple’s history with the current Apple TV box and its other Mac and iOS products, there are some guidelines we can use to help us think about what Apple might be doing around the reinvention of the TV.”

“While Apple does hardware, the purpose of the hardware is really to showcase the genius of Apple’s software,” Bajarin writes. “With that in mind, here are four guiding principles that I believe Apple will use when creating whatever next-gen TV experience the company plans to deliver to customers in the future.”

Four guiding principles for understanding Apple’s TV strategy:
• An Apple TV will be personal
• Apple TV will be social
• Apple TV will be interactive
• Apple TV will revolutionize television advertising

The four bullet points above are explored in greater detail in the full article here.

15 Comments

      1. I don’t think it’s all that much of a daydream. Honestly, what Apple products has anyone really matched? Badly imitated, sure; adequately imitated, rarely; matched? I certainly can’t think of even one.

  1. Interesting, in particular that Apple could change TV advertising. The current model is really hindering the move to digital distribution. Not sure the whole like/dislike button is really the solution – the would require people actually doing it. A passive system would be much better, though this quickly become a personal privacy nightmare.

    1. My experiments with the Hulu ‘Does this ad apply to you’ button is that it’s merely an ‘Idiot Button’. I’ve seen NOTHING change as a result of ‘yes’ or ‘no’ choices I’ve made. I’m gonna get bombarded with stupid Geico ads no matter what feedback I provide. It’s about $MONEY$, not the user experience, as per the Marketing Moron Manifesto.

      IOW: What’s the point of interactive media if the media outlets and marketing morons don’t give a rats?

      1. What’s the point of interactive media if the media outlets and marketing morons don’t give a rats?

        Interactive is a double-edged sword and I can turn it off at no cost to me without degrading my experience but not everyone is as pampered as I am.

        However, in America, happiness is a financially-tiered spectrum designed to create discomfort for those at the Free end of the scale and bring joy to those with money.

        Apple makes the world bearable and this hand & glove experience is my ticket to relief.

        Android users have to wipe their phones before they’re even useable. Interestingly enough, therein lies the attraction; makeovers. Or is that do-over?

        Imagine the experience of a subsidized Android contract and the manner in which third-parties are allowed to get their hooks into everything you do with that phone/computer?

        I submit, you’d have to hack an Android phone just to be sure you’re secure and even then you’re only as safe as the software you trust.

    1. I don’t mind speculation as long as it makes sense.

      But as we’ve seen throughout 2010, 2011 and 2012 is speculation based on NOTHING. Vacuous Apple rumor mongering is still accelerating as Apple-illiterate tech journalists try to impress one another, as if they know what they’re talking about.

      At least now we have verified information that Apple is working with TV manufacturers on something-or-other. It could be an “iTV” or it might simply be an Apple TV enabled TV set (with built-in iSight cameras and noise reduction microphones) that ends up being a universal standard.

      There, i just speculated, and I made sense: iSight and noise reduction microphones in ALL TVs.

      Isn’t it amazing how, just off the top of my head, my Apple rumor puts most of the “iTV” rumor mongerers to shame. Goes to show you just how LAME these ‘professional’ tech journalists and “ANALcysts” really are. 😯

      No, I don’t want their jobs, thank you.

      1. No, I don’t want their jobs, thank you.

        You couldn’t do their job, you’re a terrible liar!

        But as we’ve seen… speculation based on NOTHING.

        Speculation based on nothing is thinking out loud, like Tourette’s. It’s shameful to laugh but they say the damnedest things and our First poster takes the cake this week, in terms of sheer over the top cheerleading. Hey PB71 we can see your panties!

        Apple may never make the cover of Time again.

        Tim Cook has gotten sloppy, releasing problems needing solutions was never Jobs’s style and I think we all know he’d have come down pretty hard on the maker of Maps and that product would have never seen the light of day.

        The only way Apple makes the cover of Time anymore is, if they make a comeback. But not before going through the same machinations as Microsoft is currently. But the fact is, Steve Jobs is gone and all that’s left is the spirit of his determination to bring joy to the end user.

        If Apple made nothing else I would be content with what I have. It was Steve Jobs who made it his life’s work to deliver that which I didn’t know I needed. That is also gone, isn’t it?

        My sense is, Apple is running out of obstacles requiring an Apple solution. They’ve already given the world a stellar set of award-winning tools to bring us together. The team to elect the President used this tool-set to coordinate their victory and they have nothing but praise for Tim Cook and the edge Apple gave President Obama.

        How do you top that? You can’t, just as “you can’t make a horse drink” no matter how good you make the water feel to the senses, Apple can’t move forward if we can’t use what we have.

        How many times have we heard Jobs characterize the aftermath of a product’s introduction with thoughts like, we’re never sure what the public is going to do with our products until we get them out there and the impact it has on his roadmap for innovation. The map may still exist in some form, but the hope for another product coming from Apple for which there is no distinct purpose may be gone with Jobs.

        What’s left is turning Apple into Disneyland, complete with theme park and all. The Mothership on campus will be headquarters to the monolithic empire that is Apple, Inc.

        If Steve Jobs gave me a job, I would bring Apparel manufacturing to Apple.

        I want to wear fine clothes made with fabric enmeshed with synthetic circuitry to provide comfort in any condition. Imagine Gortex complete with Touch controls and a thermostat?

        I was a spec artist at the Yuma Daily Sun for a couple of years and I had to make stuff up out of nothing all the time but these analysts got it over me big time, they’ve gone for so long without they can do anything with nothing.

  2. “Until Apple releases whatever Apple TV device it has in the works, most of what is said about it from outsiders is pretty much speculation,”

    Really?

    All I know is that it is a device that lets you look into the past.

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