CEO Tim Cook has admitted that Apple has an iTV concept in development with analysts now tipping a new iTV could be launched mid-2013.Speaking to Brian Williams of NBC TV in the USA, the Apple chief executive said the TV set was ‘an area of intense interest’ for the company.
In the interview to be screened in the USA tonight, Cook suggested the humble television set could be next in line for an Apple-style modernisation.
“When I go into my living room and turn on the TV, I feel like I have gone backwards in time by 20 to 30 years,” he said.
The revelation that Apple is working on a smart TV concept is set to threaten traditional TV companies.
Speculation has been rife for more than 12 months that Apple’s next big move will be a TV.
The new TV which is tipped to be either OLED or Ultra High Definition will have a Siri-controlled system, an iOS-like UI and access to content from organisations like Foxtel, as well as direct from Hollywood studios.
During the interview Cook assured iOS 6 users that he was placing the “weight of the entire company behind correcting” the misfiring Maps application that has damaged Apple’s reputation in recent months.
He added: “On Maps, a few years ago, we decided that we wanted to provide customers features that we didn’t have in the current edition of Maps.
“It [Maps] didn’t meet our customers’ expectation, and our expectations of ourselves are even higher than our customers’. However, I can tell you, so we screwed up.”
