Between 2011 and 2014, there were a glut of rumors suggesting that Apple was working on an Apple-branded television set, which would disrupt the TV industry. No such product ever emerged, but now the TV rumors are back.
According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple is "evaluating" the "idea of making an Apple-branded TV" set as part of its new smart home push. Apple is investing resources into the smart home as it looks for new ways to generate revenue, and if some of the first smart home products are successful, it's possible a TV could be on the roadmap.
As soon as March 2025, Apple will launch a smart home hub or "command center" that will serve as its first dedicated smart home control product. The Apple TV and HomePod can already be added to HomeKit and used as Home Hubs, but the new device is aimed specifically at managing HomeKit and Matter devices.
Apple is planning to allow users to mount the device on a wall or on a desktop with a dock, and customers will have the option to have them in multiple rooms. Along with controlling smart home products, the hub will be used as a sort of life management device with Apple Intelligence and Siri integration, widgets that display important information, and apps like Calendar, Photos, Home, Apple News, Apple Music, and Notes.
Sensors inside the hub will determine whether a person is in the room and if so how close, with information on the screen tailored based on the person's position. That kind of presence sensing could also be used in various HomeKit automations.
If the product ends up being successful, it could potentially spawn a line of Apple-designed in-homeproducts, including a TV set.
Apple is considering a range of smart home accessories, such as smart home cameras. As of right now, Apple makes the Apple TV and HomePod, but cameras, smart plugs, smart lights, and other devices come from third-party manufacturers.
If Apple does end up seeing success with the hub and subsequent products like cameras, it's not hard to imagine a future where a TV set could finally make sense.
Rumors about an Apple TV set have dated back to 2006, but picked up in 2011 after a former Apple executive claimed that Apple had inked a deal with a TV manufacturer. Later that same year, a quote from Steve Jobs in Walter Isaacson's biography about him made headlines.
"I finally cracked it," Jobs allegedly said in reference to a TV set. "I'd like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use," he is said to have told Isaacson. The TV "would be seamlessly synced" with devices and iCloud, and users would not "have to fiddle with complex remotes."
That quote kept TV set rumors going for years, but in 2014 and 2015, it started becoming clear no TV was coming.
In 2014, a new Steve Jobs book suggested Jobs told employees that no TV was in the works in 2010. "TV is a terrible business," Jobs said. "They don't turn over, and the margins suck." In 2015, The Wall Street Journal said that Apple nixed plans for an Apple-branded TV set "more than a year ago." At the time, the report said that Apple searched for breakthrough features that would give it an edge in the television market, but it could not find new features that were compelling enough to compete against existing big TV manufacturers.
In 2016, reporter and longtime Jobs friend Walt Mossberg said that Jobs planned to reinvent the television industry after stepping down as Apple's CEO in August 2011, but he ended up passing away from pancreatic cancer less than two months later in October 2011.
"I think we figured out a way to do it, and it's going to be fantastic. I want you to come out, in a few months, and I want to show it to you," Jobs told Mossberg.
After TV set rumors died down, focus instead turned to Apple's work to create a TV streaming service with support for bundles of channels from participating content providers. Apple wanted to offer a range of content from third-party companies, but with its own interface. The company's plans had to be scaled back several times, and Apple wasn't ever able to establish the content deals that would have been needed for that original idea at the time.
Since those initial TV set rumors, Apple has made inroads in the television industry. By 2017, rumors were starting to focus on Apple's plan to create original content since it couldn't license content, and that's exactly what ended up happening.
In November 2019, Apple introduced Apple TV , and it has continued adding new TV shows and movies over the course of the last five years. Apple TV now has a decent amount of content available, and there are also other services like Apple Music that didn't exist back when Apple was considering building a TV set.
Apple has been working on cutting-edge display technology, and while the TV market continues to be crowded with Samsung, LG, and Sony dominating, there could now be an opportunity for Apple to make a viable product that will appeal to consumers.
Since 2014 when TV rumors died out, Apple has come out with products that could provide more of a reason to release a TV set. Apple has more experience with speakers, earbuds, remotes, and other devices and technologies.
Apple is more desperate for new products that could be big money makers today than it was in 2014, because the smartphone market is so saturated that it doesn't see the same kinds of iPhone sales gains that it saw in prior years.
Apple hoped to get into the automobile market, but after years of research and billions of dollars, all plans for an Apple Car were canceled. Apple's other big gamble, augmented and virtual reality, hasn't yet seen success as the Vision Pro has floundered, and its work on artificial intelligence is still in the early stages.
The smart home hub that Apple is working on is slated for an early 2025 launch, and it's possible the first home product, a camera, could follow in 2026. Given that a TV set isn't even a solid plan as of yet, we could be nearing the end of the decade before Apple is able to launch one.
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