Apple + TV. Not right now…

I’m starting to get sick of all these Apple TV rumours. People are still claiming that the iTV - or whatever the hell we’re calling it - will be announced at WWDC. Well you know what? No. Non. Niet. Nein.

We all know that Apple loves to reinvent things. The music player. The cell phone. The tablet. I have no doubt that they plan on reinventing TV at some point, but it can’t happen right now. Why? Content.

To truly reinvent the television, Apple needs three things: unique hardware, intuitive software / user experience, and content partnerships. Can Apple make beautiful TV hardware right now? Absolutely. Can Apple create an intuitive TV operating system complete with Siri voice control and apps? Sure. But the biggest piece of the pie is content partnerships, and judging from recent comments out of Hollywood, those deals don’t exist.

Steve may have “cracked it”, but that doesn’t mean that Hollywood liked his solution. Without content deals, the iTV can’t happen. Might Apple do something with the existing AppleTV at WWDC? New OS? Third-party apps? Perhaps. But this mythical iTV we keep hearing about? It’s not coming yet.