Steve Jobs left iTunes creator in charge of connected TV initiative

Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited January 2014
Jeff Robbin, an Apple vice president and engineer who helped create both iTunes and the iPod, is leading the company's efforts to produce a connected TV with integrated search functionality, according to a new report.



Citing multiple people familiar with the project, Bloomberg reported on Monday that Robbin is in charge of Cupertino, Calif., company's secretive high-definition TV project. According to the sources, Apple is working to integrate seamless content search features into the device.



"For example, instead of having to separately check to see if a movie or show is available through Netflix or a cable service, all the material could be integrated," the report noted.



Robbin worked as a system software engineer at Apple in the 1990s before leaving to work on his own software projects. While at software publisher Casady & Greene, he helped to develop the SoundJam MP MP3 player software. In late 2000, AppleInsider was first to report that Apple had purchased the rights for SoundJam from Casady & Greene, bringing Robbin back into the fold to head up the software's transformation into iTunes.



Back at Apple, Robbin also played a crucial role in the development of the iPod, which just recently celebrated its 10-year anniversary. He is listed among the inventors of several key iPod-related patent filings, though not all of the applications were successfully converted into legitimate patents.



His current role at Apple is vice president of consumer applications and lead software designer for iTunes.



Apple VP Jeff Robbin giving a demo of iTunes in 2009 | Credit: Engadget.



Apple co-founder Steve Jobs at one point considered Robbin to be of such high value to the company that he worked to keep Robbin's role under wraps. According to the bestselling biography on Jobs, officially released on Monday, Jobs refused to allow a Time magazine reporter to use the engineer's full name in an article because he feared Robbin would be poached by another company. The book also noted that Robbin was one of the Apple executives who successfully lobbied Jobs to allow a Windows version of iTunes.



Having persisted for years, rumors surrounding Apple's connected television initiative have gained momentum after Jobs' biography confirmed that he had been working on such a device. Author Walter Isaacson quoted Jobs in an interview as saying that he wanted to make television sets "simple and elegant," just like he had done with computers, music players and phones.



"It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine," Jobs reportedly said of the project. "I finally cracked it."



Multiple analysts claimed (1, 2) on Monday that Apple has been building prototype high-definition TVs, possibly in preparation for a 2012 launch. The rumored product would represent a strong opportunity for the company, as some have projected the LCD TV market to top $100 billion next year.



Apple currently sells a $99 Apple TV set-top box, but considers the device to be little more than a "hobby."
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 69
    Geez, today must have been AppleTV day or something. Well, we'll see. Still think this will be an Apple box that attaches to 3rd-party 'Apple-blessed' TVs.
  • Reply 2 of 69
    I'm just hoping Apple finds a way to finally gives us all the service we really want. All the shows on all the networks, episodes available at air time, on any device, for one reasonable monthly fee. Cable without the horrible cable box.
  • Reply 3 of 69
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Mister Snitch View Post


    Still think this will be an Apple box that attaches to 3rd-party 'Apple-blessed' TVs.



    You may be right, but that'd mean they'd have to include a camera in the bezel to Apple's specs in order to include Facetime--a must have function to make this TV truly stand out from the crowd.
  • Reply 4 of 69
    801801 Posts: 271member
    Once again, this device will compete with the Bose videotape product and not the best buy "wall of stretched to fit monitors", Built to price.
  • Reply 5 of 69
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by franktinsley View Post


    I'm just hoping Apple finds a way to finally gives us all the service we really want. All the shows on all the networks, episodes available at air time, on any device, for one reasonable monthly fee. Cable without the horrible cable box.



    The sad thing is I think the studios would sooner kill a helpless baby than to let that happen. They don''t want to effectively cede control of their market to Apple. Keep in mind that if you actually had to PICK what you wanted to watch, more than half the cable channels would disappear, including the one obscure channel you might be interested in. The current system only works because they play round robin with the money they collect to prop up channels that wouldn't be able to support themselves on their own.



    We all know the future is IPTV. The question is how do we get there when the cable companies have their powerful lobbying groups to protect themselves? They don't want to be seen as dumb pipes in which you'll have the choice of picking 6-7 providers of TV content (of which Apple could be one). They want to delay that day for as long as financially possible!
  • Reply 6 of 69
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Mister Snitch View Post


    Geez, today must have been AppleTV day or something. Well, we'll see. Still think this will be an Apple box that attaches to 3rd-party 'Apple-blessed' TVs.



    That would make no sense in the context of Steve's revelation in the book. He wants it to be as simple as possible. He talks about controlling the entire user experience just like Mac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad. You can't control the ENTIRE user experience if you have to deal with other manufacturer's televisions. When he said that the cable companies' grasp on the industry couldn't be solved by selling people an add on box because they still had to pay for it when cable companies' were giving their boxes away for free, it was true. Saying that he cracked it, means that Apple would have to have the user in their hands the second they walk out of an Apple Store with one of their TVs. You get home, plug it in, sign in with your Apple ID and it already has your iCloud content already on the TV and new content ready to be purchased and watched without involving cable companies.



    An Apple TV won't have a lot of the commonly used connectors at the back. Apple is notorious for retiring old I/O in favour of upcoming new tech. Coax, RCA and component are goners. I imagine it will have to have HDMI to gain industry acceptance but even that is not guaranteed.



    A simple plug in TV with a power cable, Thunderbolt, with built in Apple TV software, SIRI for more complex actions than what Apple's simple remote can be practical for (text input), a FaceTime camera and WiFi for straightforward connectivity with iCloud and iOS devices.



    I'm convinced Apple will hit this out of the ballpark with one minor exception: the price. Apple needs to price this to sell. Otherwise it won't. The days of premium priced Apple products for fanboys are over. Apple is pricing their products more aggressively than ever. They're still higher than the competition, but not enough to keep them out of the hands of most consumers. I don't think they can sell this for more than $1,500 and that's already very high for a 50" HDTV.
  • Reply 7 of 69
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by iPedro View Post


    That would make no sense in the context of Steve's revelation in the book. He wants it to be as simple as possible. He talks about controlling the entire user experience just like Mac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad. You can't control the ENTIRE user experience if you have to deal with other manufacturer's televisions.



    An Apple TV won't have a lot of the commonly used connectors at the back. Apple is notorious for retiring old I/O in favour of upcoming new tech. Coax, RCA and component are goners. I imagine it will have to have HDMI to gain industry acceptance but even that is not guaranteed.



    A simple plug in TV with a power cable, Thunderbolt, with built in Apple TV software, SIRI for more complex actions than what Apple's simple remote can be practical for (text input), a FaceTime camera and WiFi for straightforward connectivity with iCloud and iOS devices.



    I'm convinced Apple will hit this out of the ballpark with one minor exception: the price. Apple needs to price this to sell. Otherwise it won't. The days of premium priced Apple products for fanboys are over. Apple is pricing their products more aggressively than ever. They're still higher than the competition, but not enough to keep them out of the hands of most consumers. I don't think they can sell this for more than $1,500 and that's already very high for a 50" HDTV.



    At that point, either your pricing it to be affordable or your stuffing in all of those features you requested. You can't really have both. There's no way to hide the price via subsidy with the iPhone, and TV makers are already operating on thin margins (something Apple doesn't do).
  • Reply 8 of 69
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by dagamer34 View Post


    The sad thing is I think the studios would sooner kill a helpless baby than to let that happen. They don''t want to effectively cede control of their market to Apple. Keep in mind that if you actually had to PICK what you wanted to watch, more than half the cable channels would disappear, including the one obscure channel you might be interested in. The current system only works because they play round robin with the money they collect to prop up channels that wouldn't be able to support themselves on their own.



    We all know the future is IPTV. The question is how do we get there when the cable companies have their powerful lobbying groups to protect themselves? They don't want to be seen as dumb pipes in which you'll have the choice of picking 6-7 providers of TV content (of which Apple could be one). They want to delay that day for as long as financially possible!



    Wow that's a really good summary of what's probably stopping everything from progressing. As more and more people stop subscribing to cable TV though I think the studios will finally be forced to turn to Apple as their only hope. It happened with music and print already. TV and movies seem inevitable.
  • Reply 9 of 69
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    ahem..
  • Reply 10 of 69
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Mister Snitch View Post


    Geez, today must have been AppleTV day or something. Well, we'll see. Still think this will be an Apple box that attaches to 3rd-party 'Apple-blessed' TVs.



    Yeah, and Apple should licence OS X.. lol
  • Reply 11 of 69
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Robin Huber View Post


    You may be right, but that'd mean they'd have to include a camera in the bezel to Apple's specs in order to include Facetime--a must have function to make this TV truly stand out from the crowd.



    Then that would be in Apple's specs for 'Made for Apple TV' makers. I could see where Apple might even provide certain parts to insure a consistent experience.
  • Reply 12 of 69
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Robin Huber View Post


    You may be right, but that'd mean they'd have to include a camera in the bezel to Apple's specs in order to include FaceTime.



    iTV will not have FaceTime.
  • Reply 13 of 69
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by iPedro View Post


    I imagine it will have to have HDMI to gain industry acceptance but even that is not guaranteed.



    iTV will have zero HDMI ports. Just as iPad has zero USB ports.
  • Reply 14 of 69
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by iPedro View Post


    He talks about controlling the entire user experience just like Mac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad. You can't control the ENTIRE user experience if you have to deal with other manufacturer's televisions.



    I haven't read the book yet, so I didn't know that. But I also don't know that Apple has to make the entire TV to 'control the experience'. These are TVs, not computers. The critical 'control' features could be, again, insured by insisting on certain specs inside the TV, and of course Apple still makes the attached box.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by iPedro View Post


    I'm convinced Apple will hit this out of the ballpark with one minor exception: the price. Apple needs to price this to sell. Otherwise it won't. The days of premium priced Apple products for fanboys are over. Apple is pricing their products more aggressively than ever. They're still higher than the competition, but not enough to keep them out of the hands of most consumers. I don't think they can sell this for more than $1,500 and that's already very high for a 50" HDTV.



    You just destroyed your own argument. Price is NOT a minor consideration these days, and Apple has been keenly competitive in its pricing. You are saying: "Well, this time they WON'T be price-competitive, and so they will make a great but very high-priced product that won't sell (not widely anyway).



    Read your own argument. That's what you said.



    The solution of course is this: Don't make the whole TV.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Ireland View Post


    Yeah, and Apple should licence OS X.. lol



    I never made that argument, or anything like it... lol
  • Reply 15 of 69
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by iPedro View Post


    A simple plug in TV with a power cable, Thunderbolt, with built in Apple TV software, SIRI for more complex actions than what Apple's simple remote can be practical for (text input), a FaceTime camera....



    I'll rewrite this for you:



    A simple plug in TV with a power cable, optical audio, an ethernet port, a physical remote control with buttons, running a built-from-scratch TV-variant of iOS with something reminiscent of a grid of icons. TV shows, obviously. Movies, obviously. App Store, obviously.



    Perhaps even some sort of iOS-style folder system so when you download a certain genre of app it goes into that folder - say a news app gets put in the news folder, a game gets put in a game folder etc. After that you've apps like Settings, with no ability to change how the screen looks. Well, perhaps a possible setting for brightness, but even that could be sensed ambiently. No camera, no Siri, no weird shit. iTV.



    - - -



    What's the single best feature of iTV?



    A feature Apple won't push really hard, but one that every owner of an iTV will become very aware of after using it for about a week: One remote per living room.
  • Reply 16 of 69
    lvidallvidal Posts: 158member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Ireland View Post


    iTV will not have FaceTime.



    Of course it will. It'll be a key feature, the final stage for FaceTime, the thing that will boost it finally.



    With more than 100 million devices out there FaceTime capable, that will be a complete success.
  • Reply 17 of 69
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by lvidal View Post


    Of course it will. It'll be a key feature, the final stage for FaceTime.



    I cannot prove to you that you are wrong, but you'll find out you are wrong.
  • Reply 18 of 69
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Mister Snitch View Post


    I never made that argument, or anything like it... lol



    You just don't get it. Right over your head.
  • Reply 19 of 69
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Mister Snitch View Post


    Then that would be in Apple's specs for 'Made for Apple TV' makers. I could see where Apple might even provide certain parts to insure a consistent experience.



    I disagree that they won't make their own TV (if they go into the market at all). It just doesn't make sense to me.



    If Apple can make everything else besides the screen (and they already do almost with the current Apple TV), why wouldn't they make the screen as well if they can get a good price on components? (and of course they can)



    To assume they will need to "keep the TV" and just connect their box to it, is to assume that the stuff that's already connected to this TV is part of the plan. I don't see that it is. It also just makes Apple one of the many boxes connected to a TV. They already have that in Apple TV and while it's popular it's hardly going to take over the market. They will aim for a one-stop solution that *replaces* all those other boxes instead.



    An Apple branded TV wouldn't have many connectors, it wouldn't have external speakers, it wouldn't have cable. And once you take that stuff away, all that's left is the screen and the software.
  • Reply 20 of 69
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Ireland View Post


    You just don't get it. Right over your head.



    Oh, I completely 'got it', what little there was to get. It was just so terribly tired and lame is all. Kinda sad really.
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