For years, there’s been intense speculation that Apple has sought to move away from producing only a set-top box and instead sell its own television set. Now, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal, those plans are no more.
The report – which indicates Apple shelved any aspirations of producing its own television set last year – also lists a number of features the Cupertino company planned on including with the long anticipated product.
The product was ultimately scrapped due to two reasons; firstly, that Apple felt it couldn’t suitably differentiate its own television set from others already on the market, and secondly, that the end product Apple wished to sell proved infeasibly expensive.
Apple had planned to manufacture a flat-panel TV which would have included a 4K TV screen in addition to FaceTime video chat availability, which would be accompanied by cameras which sensed and followed a speaker around a room much like Microsoft’s Kinect for Xbox.
CEO Tim Cook has repeatedly stated that TV is an area of intense interest for Apple; although the company has proceeded to mothball its own television set, that doesn’t mean the product won’t be released in the future.
During the development period for an Apple TV, 4K TV screens proved too expensive for the even the premium Cupertino company to feasibly make a product that it could market competitively – however, recent months have seen 4K prices drop considerably, indicating Apple might renew interest in the project at a later date.
Despite residing in a slightly different context and market, Microsoft faced similar problems with the launch of its Xbox One console – early adopters and consumers complained about the console’s Kinect sensor, which greatly inflated the price of the console. In the end, Microsoft had to resort to shipping a more affordable version of the Xbox One without it. It is likely that Apple, despite being quite familiar with producing premium products, shared similar reservations over the eventual price of its own television set in this regard.
However, speculation continues to posit that WWDC might see the reveal of a new Apple TV set-top box.
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