Ben Kunz quotes Steve Jobs in Business Week:
“The television industry … pretty much undermines innovation in the sector,” Jobs said at the All Things Digital Conference in July 2010. “The only way this is going to change is if you start from scratch, tear up the box, redesign, and get it to the consumer in a way that they want to buy it.”
What would a real Apple TV be?
I’ll add a few items to my list. A high quality, Retina-like screen, built-in Digital Video Recorder capability, internet and cable TV connectors (and other HDMI connectors), simple remote control, iPhone and iPad-like apps (iTunes), Bluetooth 4 wireless capability for control, FaceTime camera for Skype and FaceTime.
And, one more thing.
In 2010, Apple won a patent for a revolutionary new 3D screen system that would not require glasses and could be viewed by multiple people at the same time. The patent went so far as to slam current 3D systems, noting that most people dislike goggles and dismissing current non-glasses systems as “essentially unworkable for projecting a 3D image … to an entire audience.”
A 3D television screen without the need for glasses? Tell me more.
An “unobstructed 3D viewing device” that would give each viewer a different line of sight for both left and right eye, perfecting a stereoscopic image for a group of viewers watching one giant screen. The Apple patent even had a cool name for the result: a hologram. Could Apple put holograms in every home, break the stranglehold of cable companies, and unlock a $14 billion TV revenue stream? It’s an audacious and perhaps crazy idea.
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