TV: the left behind technology that Tim Cook wants to change

Television has been left behind, eclipsed by mobile and tablet technologies. Sure you get great television sets with fantastic screens yada blah etc., but what do you do with a television? You switch it on and later you switch it off. Not so anymore, if Apple CEO Tim Cook has anything to do with it.

Lately the humble TV set has seen some changes happening. Similar to smartphones and tablets, TV is becoming more connected and reaching into the online social world. Apple has been planning to go head-to-head with other competitors like Sony, Samsung and LG in bringing a more interactive TV experience for a while now. In an interview with with Brian Williams, Cook said: “it’s a market that we have intense interest in, it’s a market that we see that has been left behind”.

If you think about it, TV has enormous potential to be “the next big thing”. For a second time. Interactive shows, virtual classrooms, teaching from or at home… With the world changing towards a more connected era, TV has all the correct ingredients in place.

Apple has tried already, but the Apple TV set top box was a bit of a flop many would say, with Apple itself jokingly referring to it as a hobby. But it is the one thing missing from its “intention” to take your whole home online and connected through Apple products. So far the iPhone, iPod, iPad and whatever other “iProduct” you can find has given users connectivity and entertainment. It’s just the Apple “iHobby” that still has to come to the party.

“When I go into my living room and turn on the TV, I feel like I have gone backwards in time by 20 to 30 years,” Cook said in the interview. “It’s an area of intense interest. I can’t say more than that.”