BETA
This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here

More From Forbes

Edit Story

Maybe It's an Apple Cable Box Instead

This article is more than 10 years old.

The rumor mill is in overdrive: Apple is working, as usual, on the next big thing, which in this case supposedly is an Apple-branded television set.

Image via CrunchBase

Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster discusses the scenario in a new client note.

An Apple TV, though, is enough of a change for the company for naysayers to chime in. One alternative scenario, suggested by Daniel M. Ladik, associate professor of Marketing at Seton Hall University’s Stillman School of Business, is that Apple is building a never-seen-before, superior cable box. He makes a compelling case:

An Ordinary TV Doesn’t Fit with Apple’s MO: Apple creatively destructs inefficient industries (music, books, etc) that have a relatively small number of players that control the over majority of the play.  The TV business does not have small number of players - there are hundreds.

What Apple is Really Doing: Building a superior cable box that will revolutionize the video experience.  The interface—that is, the remote control--can be Siri based but more important, it will meld live TV, on demand TV, Apps and the Internet like nothing has ever done before.

Why It Resonates: Just think how this could change the advertising industry.  All metrics for TV ads could be interactive, tractable but more importantly - you could buy right then and there on impulse.

How it Would Work: Just as it does with AT&T and Verizon for its mobile devices, Apple would partner with the dominant players in the cable space, namely Comcast and Time Warner.

Why Consumers Would Like It: Suddenly you have a cable box that is simple enough to plug and play with no expensive technicians are needed for setup.  The cable customer service experience goes up exponentially because everything can be remotely diagnosed without directly talking to the user at home.