*Header image is referential and showcases the iPad Air M2. | Image credit — PhoneArena
Apple has been experimenting with finding new sources of income for years now: hoping to revolutionize another industry and reinvent a cash cow similar to the iPhone. Though this hasn’t gone as well as the company had hoped — the abandoned car project and Apple Vision Pro come to mind — it has led to some pretty interesting prototypes.
Bloomberg’s renowned Apple insider Mark Gurman revealed a fascinating tidbit of information today regarding the canceled Apple TV. This device, which Apple gave up on pretty soon after its inception, would have served a lot more purpose than a simple TV. In fact, had the company actually gone through with it it would have been one of the earliest examples of modern smart TVs.
Steve Jobs had often teased such a product and the Apple fan base was awaiting its announcement any day now. Jobs envisioned a TV that was, for almost all intents and purposes, just a giant iPad or Mac. The TV would sync with other Apple products and iCloud and, most interestingly, be touch-enabled and allow users to video conference and even do office work on.
Instead the iPad of today is basically a mini PC. | Image credit — PhoneArena
This project was canceled when Apple began running the numbers and realized that the TV industry wouldn’t be as profitable as it had hoped. Jobs wanted to turn the industry on its head but most people didn’t really care about visual quality and instead went with the cheapest LCD they could find. TVs aren’t particularly known for being upgraded each year either unlike smartphones.
However, before the cancellation Apple had multiple prototypes made and experimented with. Teams sat huddled around tables discussing the logistics of supply chains and manufacturing costs. Others got to work on the operating system this device would have, something Jobs said should “have the simplest user interface you could imagine.”
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Though the project sadly never saw the light of day it’s hilarious to imagine that somewhere at Apple, perhaps forgotten in some cupboard, is a TV that is essentially a giant iPad. It certainly sounds like something Jobs would have loved to work on and perhaps one day we’ll get to see something similar.
Though it’ll probably cost an arm and a leg and maybe even a kidney.
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Abdullah is an ardent believer in the future of VR, and can't wait to see what more it brings to the table as technology improves. He enjoys covering new software releases in the XR industry, as well as major news about hardware and companies focused on VR.
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