Apple TV Unlikely To Appear This Year

by Mike on September 6, 2012

Apple TV has always been an on again, off again project for the Cupertino company. Just when it was thought that this device would be coming on the market sooner, rather then later, it would appears that new delays may shelve this project once again.

Bloomberg has gone on the record to state that Apple TV will not launch before the end of this year and the biggest challenge to this project has been contract negotiations which Apple must have in place with content providers and cable outlets before moving forward. Cable companies currently have a good thing going and in order to change their business model, there needs to be additional benefits with few risks. As it stands now, these providers are unwilling to change their revenue models, but in addition to this, they want to maintain control over the distribution of the Apple TV set-top boxes as well as have more say in the software that powers them.

It’s not as if these issues that Apple is having with cable providers is anything new, in fact, it’s believed that Apple has been in negotiations since 2007 when Apple TV first made its début. Moving forward, Apple does have challenges ahead of it, but perhaps one way around them is to work with cable providers on an individual basis that are interested in this product. For instance, Time Warner Cable has always shown an interest in Apple’s product and perhaps they could become an initial partner. If this type of partnership could be forged, TWC customers would still be expected to have a monthly cable bill, even when using a set-top box.

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