In his D8 interview last year, Jobs had this to say about a hypothetical Apple television: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGpucaAzh0U#t=153s http://www.youtube.

In his D8 interview last year, Jobs had this to say about a hypothetical Apple television: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGpucaAzh0U#t=153s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGpucaAzh0U#t=153s I'm not sure I entirely understand his answer, but he seems to be saying that they can't innovate on the hardware because it's too commoditized and subsidized, so an innovative product can't be priced competitively. They can't partner with an entity providing the subsidy, as they did with AT&T, because there is no one entity big enough to make it worthwhile. And there is no way to connect to all the providers, without putting a set-top box in the middle, which is exactly what they are trying to avoid. Here is Isaacson's "I cracked it" quote: “‘I’d like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use,’ he told me. ‘It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud.’ No longer would users have to fiddle with complex remotes for DVD players and cable channels. ‘It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it.’” What exactly did he crack? What will make the iTV so appealing that consumers will now be willing to pay a premium for it? He mentions a new user interface, as well as iCloud, which did not exist (publicly) at the time of the D8 interview. But what about the global connectivity issue? Are they just betting that people will give up cable TV for apps + itunes + icloud + magical interface? Or is there something else in there?