History of the Apple TV

In this video I want to cover Apples set top box but also include additional elements of Apple’s involvement in the television market. Because Apple has and continues to experiment in this industry despite never having released a traditional television set.

So, I’ll start off by briefly mentioning the Macintosh TV. This was a short-lived attempt in 1993 to integrate TV and computers in a way that was pretty ahead of its time. It was essentially a personal computer that could be switched between computing functions to a cable television display. Users could watch TV in a desktop window, and it came with a small remote that controlled the TV functions from afar. While it was a pretty novel idea, the Macintosh TV cost over $2,000, almost $3,500 today adjusting for inflation, and only about 10,000 models were ever produced. It was discontinued the following year in 1994 and Apple wouldn’t attempt to integrate TV and computing in quite the same way for another twelve years.

Now, the Apple TV that we’re all familiar with today was officially introduced in 2006 by Steve Jobs. It was initially referred to as “iTV”, which used Apple’s traditional ‘i’ moniker, and was going to be Apple’s first big foray into the home entertainment market. But things got off to a rocky start, because before the product was even launched, Apple was faced with some legal trouble. The name iTV was already copyrighted by a British broadcasting network who refused to give it up. They threatened legal action against the tech company and Apple changed the name before its 2007 release. This came as a surprise to many, considering Apples tendency to fiercely defend logos, names, and trademarks, but Apple yielded without putting up a fight and Apple TV began shipping to customers on March 21, 2007.