For the past several years I, like so many others, have wondered why Apple has not come out with an Apple Television. In his biography, Steve Jobs noted that he finally cracked the TV and knew how to make a better one (I'm paraphrasing). More recently during an interview with Charlie Rose, Tim Cook let it slip that Apple had at least been experimenting with the idea of coming out with a TV. As a huge fan of Apple that sounds great but when you think of where the future of TV might be heading it's easy to understand why Apple has not come out with one yet.
An important question to ask is, could the TV end up being the dumb device in our house? With streaming devices such as Apple TV, Chromecast, Roku, Amazon Fire TV and many more continuing to pop up it's becoming very clear that the content we watch won't actually be coming from our TV's, rather the TV will just be the dumb device who's only purpose is to play the content. Not only are we seeing a proliferation of streaming devices, but the unbundling of cable services in recent years has the potential drive more people away from traditional offerings. Unbundling gives the consumer the freedom to watch more content on a variety of devices without having to pay for cable. With HBO and CBS now allowing you to subscribe to their streaming services and Starz suggesting they will do the same it's clear the cable companies are going to have to rethink their business model at some point in the next 3-5 years. They simply won't be able to charge consumers an arm and a leg for a bundle of 150 channels when most people are only concerned about 10% of them.
If that does end up being the case then Apple choosing not to develop their own TV makes more sense. Another big issue to consider is that TV's offers a much less attractive business opportunity. Most iPhone users upgrade to new devices every year or two, but that's not the case with TVs where we might have the same TV for up to five years. In short that means less money in Apple pocket. It's a problem they are already facing with the iPad and one which they would probably like to avoid in the future.