Steve Jobs’s biography, written by Walter Isaacson and due on store shelves on Monday, has a passage that suggests Apple has a TV up its sleeves. The Washington Post published a small excerpt on Friday that reveals a conversation Jobs had with Isaacson in which he says he has already created a product that could change the television industry much like the iPhone changed the mobile landscape and the iPod re-sculpted the music industry. “He very much wanted to do for television sets what he had done for computers, music players, and phones: make them simple and elegant,” Isaacson said in the book. Here’s an excerpt:
“I’d like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use,” he told me. “It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud.” No longer would users have to fiddle with complex remotes for DVD players and cable channels. “It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it.”
Rumors that Apple has plans to enter the TV market have swirled for years now. In March, Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty said checks in Asia suggested that Apple was already working on a smart TV. Earlier this summer, another rumor started by a former Apple employee said customers will soon be able to walk into an Apple Store and leave with an Apple-branded TV.
