Apple, before launching the Apple TV app and Apple TV set-top box, explored a full-fledged television set with touchscreen capabilities, a report has said. The prototypes of these devices were ready even as Steve Jobs, before his passing, claimed to have solved the puzzle of creating an Apple television. However, this vision never materialised.
According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, before his death in 2011, the Apple co-founder told biographer Walter Isaacson that he’d “finally cracked it”, referring to large-display prototypes that could also serve as a touchscreen Mac or iPad.
The product would sync with other devices and the iCloud service, Jobs said, and “have the simplest user interface you could imagine.”

Apple shelved TV-like device launch

Gurman said that despite these advancements, Apple ultimately shelved the project for two reasons. One was the low-profit margins, and the other being high production and shipping costs.
Gurman said that Apple’s analysis of the TV market as a business suggested that TVs provide low margins and consumers usually don’t buy new ones very frequently like the way they upgrade to iPhones or Mac PCs.
“The effort never got as far as the Apple Watch or Vision Pro — or even the now-defunct self-driving car. TVs are a low-margin industry, and consumers don’t buy new ones very frequently. At the time, Apple was highly dependent on people upgrading iPhones, iPads and Macs as often as possible (that remains true today, but the company at least has a healthier services business). A low-margin device without a path to upgrades would have been a mistake,” Gurman added.
High manufacturing costs also proved to be a deal-breaker. The total cost of shipping TV-like devices from factories to people’s homes was also a concern.
“Apple also immediately encountered cost concerns, including the expense of air-shipping gigantic panels from factories to warehouses to homes. The company would have needed to develop and produce new chips to power the displays, as well as the input-output electronics. And the project would have required manufacturing facilities for the high-quality screens and adequate supplies of glass,” Gurman added.

Apple TV set-top-box launch and upcoming smart displays

However, this didn’t impact Apple’s aspirations to reach people’s TVs. Apple now offers Apple TV box for streaming and Apple TV+ app that has a selection of successful content.
Gurman has also said that Apple is actively developing various smart home devices, including a wall-mounted smart screen “that users can stick in their kitchens for videoconferencing and looking up recipes.”
Notably, Amazon recently launched a 21-inch smart display and gave Echo Show 15 an upgrade. In comparison, Apple’s version is said to be about the size of two iPhones side by side, putting the overall screen size below 7 inches.