Have you read the Steve Jobs iBiography yet? If you have, you will remember the "I've finally cracked it" Steve Jobs tells biographer Walter Isaacson. Was he simply referring to Siri on the iPhone 4S... or an Apple TV set?
According to The New York Times' Nick Bilton, the answer could be... both.
The reasoning (and reporting) goes as follows-- with Siri, Steve Jobs "cracked" the interface iTV will use. Instead of depending on remote controllers, users will simply tell Siri what they want to watch.
In his biography, Jobs also says an Apple TV “will have the simplest user interface you could imagine.” And what is more simple than speaking to something?
According to Bilton, Apple development on TV is at least 4 years old (the Apple TV STB hit the market on 2007), with a source saying "it is a guaranteed product for Apple... Steve thinks the industry is totally broken.”
Apple is just waiting for the costs of 42" displays to fall further-- both component and retail-wise.
Meanwhile Barclays estimates Apple could make an additional $19 billion in yearly revenue by capturing just 5% of the global TV market.
The year Bilton says such an Apple TV will hit the market? 2013.
Should TV manufacturers get worried? An Apple-powered TV set making use of the iOS app ecosystem could cause quite an impact to the TV industry. Since it would surely make use of iDevices as a remote control, remote control makers could also get hit.
This is the Age of Disruption. Through iTunes and the App Store Apple hit down both traditional music and packaged software industries. A TV industry trying to reach agreement over Smart TV standards might just become the next target-- if not victim.
