Well this rather puts a dampener on things. Shortly before his death, Apple CEO Steve Jobs told his biographer Walter Isaacson that Apple would make a TV. But now a new book about Apple says that Jobs told the company's top executives that it wouldn't.
Jobs regularly held 'Top 100' meetings, where Apple's top brass would gather and ask him questions about the future of the company. According to Haunted Empire: Apple After Steve Jobs, by former Wall Street Journal reporter Yukari Iwatani, Jobs made the announcement in his final Top 100 meeting in 2010, when he was already quite sick and having trouble walking.
According to the book, one of the execs asked if Apple would release a TV. Jobs said no without any hesitation, Yukari writes.
"TV is a terrible business," Jobs said. "They don't turn over and the margins suck."
But that's not to say Jobs didn't want to make Apple products that work in the living room. He's also reported to have said the Apple TV set-top box would remain a hobby until Apple had all the content it needed.
Some veterans in the room thought Jobs was bluffing, according to Yukari, and that it was a message to focus on what they were doing now instead of worrying about the future.
Under Tim Cook's leadership, Apple could still make a TV. Cook recently said Apple TV was too big to be just a hobby, and has previously said he finds the television "interesting" as a product category.
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