It seems that with all of the iPhone 5S, iPhone 5C and iPad 5 chatter over the last few months, that talk of a new Apple TV-related product has faded into the background. The last TV-related rumor we heard said it was going to be late 2014 before we saw anything.
But that may not be true, according to Apple insider MG Siegler. During an appearance on John Gruber’s Talk Show podcast this week, the Apple blogger-turned-VC commented that he’s heard some chatter of Apple making a significant push into television this fall…
BusinessInsider’s Jay Yarrow has the transcript:
“Not to go into rumor central here but the latest things like I’ve heard are some sort of television product — not necessarily a television screen but something — could be coming as soon as this November. And I think there’s some surprises there about what it could actually be and I don’t for sure what it could actually be but there’s been whispers about, so I’m not going to write anything about it, but there’s whispers out there that the interaction with it could be the interesting thing. People have talked about voice, but I think that’s out the window and there might be some new way to interact with whatever this thing is.”
For some context, Siegler is currently a General Partner at Google Ventures and an Apple columnist for TechCrunch. And while he doesn’t do it so much anymore, he has correctly predicted Apple product plans in the past, so his foresight here does carry some weight.
Here he notes that the television product in question isn’t necessarily an actual TV set, but hints that it may be the long rumored next gen set-top box. Back in August of last year, The Wall Street Journal said Apple was working on such a box with cloud-based DVR.
As for Apple’s current TV offering, it hasn’t extended its “hobby” beyond the $99 hockey puck it’s been selling since 2010. But it has greatly increased its content though, adding WatchESPN and HBO GO, and it’s believed that it’s in talks with Time Warner over live TV.