TV is ‘stuck in the seventies’, says Apple CEO

Apple CEO, Tim Cook

TV is an area that Apple “continues to look at,” with today’s television experience “stuck back in the seventies,” according to Apple CEO Tim Cook. 

Appearing on US talkshow, The Charlie Rose Show, following last week’s announcement of the new Apple Watch, Cook said that though Apple’s existing Apple TV streaming box has grown to more than 20 million users, it still has its eye on the TV industry.

Cook said that the hardest decisions Apple makes is what areas they should not work on, because “we know we can’t do everything great.”

Asked if TV was one of them he said: “TV is one that we continue to have great interest in, [and] I choose my words carefully there. TV is one of those things that, if we’re really honest, it’s stuck back in the seventies.”

“Think about how much your life has changed, and all the things around you that has changed. Yet [with] TV… it almost feels like you’re rewinding the clock and you’ve entered a time capsule and you’re going backwards. The interface is terrible. I mean, it’s awful. And you watch things when they come on, unless you remember to record them,” said Cook.

When challenged on why Apple doesn’t fix that, he said: “I don’t want to get into what we’re doing in the future, but we’ve taken stabs with Apple TV and Apple TV now has over 20 million users. So it has far exceeded the ‘hobby’ label that we placed on it, and we’ve added more and more content to it this year, so there’s increasingly more things you can do on there. But this is an area that we continue to look at.”

Cook’s comments follow speculation, dating back years, that Apple has been planning a branded TV set in an effort to establish itself in the living room in the same way it has the mobile space.