For a while there has been no shortage of speculation about a new TV from Apple (AAPL). Recently, Tim Cook, CEO of Apple stoked the fire by making vague comments about the company’s future in the television business.
The speculation ranges from a full-fledged TV set to a big upgrade of existing Apple TV. It has been like a blank canvas that so-called gurus have been painting on to their heart’s content because there is no way to confirm or reject any speculation.
Michael White is no run of the mill commentator speculating on Apple TV. White is the chairman of DirecTV (DTV). I paid special attention when he spoke about Apple TV to Gigaom last Friday. He is a TV industry insider and should know more than the legions of commentators whose favorite pastime has become speculating on Apple TV. White’s comments seem to be directed at a new set-top box from Apple as opposed to a TV panel.
There is no denying that over years DirecTV interface has evolved and has a large number of satisfied users. However, White’s claim that Apple will not make his technology obsolete does not inspire much confidence. ““Typically with technology, it smashes the cost structure in some new way (but) with content costs, rights fees and the cost of spectrum it’s hard to see (it) obsoleting our technology,” he told Gigaom.
I have no substantive real information about what Apple is cooking for the TV business, but DirecTV interface lacks some obvious features that Apple can implement including Siri and something similar to Kinect fromMicrosoft (MSFT)...Read more at Forbes
