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Steve Jobs's Big Miss: TV

Posted by samzenpus on from the blow-up-your-tv-throw-away-your-paper dept.

jfruh writes Steve Jobs was a well-known audiophile and music lover, which helps explain why Apple transformed the music industry in the '00s with the iPod and iTunes. But according to a new biography soon to be released, Apple may have failed to do the same for TV because of Steve Jobs's disdain for the medium. One of his first acts upon returning to the company was to kill the flashy, expensive 20th Anniversary Macintosh, in part because it had a built-in TV tuner. "Apple will never make a TV again," Jobs declared.

5 of 205 comments (clear)

  1. Which explains the ATV. by UncleRage · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's gotten lackluster support across the board. For a device with a lot of potential, it's got a lot of ugly bumps.

    --
    #SickNotWeak
  2. A miss?! by the_skywise · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Really?

    A miss?

    Are you confusing TV with watching video content on your computer because those are two entirely different things and Steve supported the latter. He probably realized that slaving PCs to broadcast/scheduled TV was a non-starter... Just as making PCs have built-in FM/AM Tuners would've been.

    http://www.businessinsider.com...

    I'm not saying Steve was a prophetic genius as he certainly made mistakes and it's wholly possible he disdained TV because he didn't want the cable companies like Comcast to get a foothold into his control of the industry. But this was far from "a miss".

  3. Define "Lackluster" by SuperKendall · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's gotten lackluster support across the board.

    I'm curious why you think an HBO exclusive deal to stream without a cable subscription on AppleTV is "lackluster". I wasn't ever going to get an AppleTV myself but that sealed it (along with the price drop).

    The only thing the AppleTV is missing that many people might want, is Amazon Prime... and there's a lot of overlap between them and Netflix, which Apple does have.

    Apple has been treating AppleTV as a hobby, sure, but that doesn't mean the support for AppleTV has been at all lackluster.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  4. Shows by JBMcB · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I think the future is subscribing to shows instead of channels. I'd rather pay $20 a month for a couple dozen really good shows to watch, than $100 a month for those same good shows, plus 200 other shows I never watch.

    --
    My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
  5. TV was not Steve Jobs' big miss by GrumpySteen · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Skipping conventional medicine and trying to treat his cancer with alternative medicine for as long as he did was a much bigger mistake.