蘋果將安排iTunes軟件設計主管杰夫.羅賓領導電視機開發項目

Apple TV Effort Is Said to Be Led By ITunes Creator Jeff Robbin

Apple Inc. is turning to the software engineer who built iTunes to help lead its development of a television set, according to three people with knowledge of the project.

Jeff Robbin, who helped create the iPod in addition to the iTunes media store, is now guiding Apple’s internal development of the new TV effort, said the people, who declined to be identified because his role isn’t public.

Robbin’s involvement is a sign of Apple’s commitment to extending its leadership in smartphones and tablets into the living room. Before his Oct. 5 death, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs told biographer Walter Isaacson that he had “finally cracked” how to build an integrated TV with a simple user interface that would wirelessly synchronize content with Apple’s other devices.

“It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine,” Jobs told Isaacson in the biography “Steve Jobs,” released today by CBS Corp.’s Simon & Schuster.

Trudy Muller, a spokeswoman for Cupertino, California-based Apple, declined to comment. Outside of Jobs’s remarks in the book, Apple hasn’t acknowledged that it’s developing a TV set. According to one person, it’s not guaranteed that Apple will release a television.

Until now, the company’s TV efforts have been limited to Apple TV, a small $99 gadget that plugs in to a TV and gives users access to content from iTunes, Netflix Inc.’s streaming service and YouTube. Jobs had called it Apple’s “hobby,” rather than something designed to be a serious moneymaker.

Prototype Model

That may be changing. Apple has a prototype TV in the works and may introduce a product for sale by late next year or 2013, according to Gene Munster, an analyst with Piper Jaffray Cos. He based that timing on meetings with contacts close to Apple’s suppliers in Asia, industry contacts and Apple’s patent portfolio. Munster said Apple also is investing in manufacturing facilities and securing supplies of LCD screens.

Apple’s introduction of the voice-command software Siri and Web-storage service iCloud also could be used for a future television, Munster said in a note to investors today. Siri may help search for videos, while iCloud allows customers to store video, music, pictures and other content on the company’s servers instead of their own hard drives.

One of Apple’s goals for a new TV is to let users more seamlessly search for a show or movie, said one of the people. For example, instead of having to separately check to see if a movie or show is available through Netflix or a cable service, all the material could be integrated, this person said.

Samsung, Sony

Building a full TV set would put Apple in closer competition with consumer-electronics companies such as Samsung Electronics Co. and Sony Corp. Apple could sell 1.4 million TVs next year, out of about 220 million flat-panel sets for the total market, according to Munster. That could add $6 billion in revenue to the company’s top line by 2014, he said.

Google Inc., which competes with Apple in the smartphone market, also is attempting to attract customers to an operating system it has created for televisions. Unlike that approach, Apple would be building both the hardware and the software.

Along with a television, Apple also may be considering new business models for delivering video. Among the ideas, Apple has discussed whether to try to start a subscription TV service, media executives said last year.

Apple rose 3.3 percent to $405.77 at the close in New York today. The shares have climbed 26 percent this year.

SoundJam Player

Robbin, the software engineer helping lead the TV effort, was hired in 2000 to develop iTunes after Apple bought the SoundJam digital music player he developed. ITunes, introduced in January 2001, became Apple’s digital hub for synchronizing music, video and applications across Apple’s devices, including the iPod, iPhone and iPad.

According to the biography, Jobs considered Robbin such a valuable employee that he wouldn’t let a Time magazine reporter meet him without agreeing not to print his last name, for fear that he would be poached by a competitor.

Robbin was among the Apple executives who helped persuade Jobs to allow computers running Microsoft Corp.’s Windows software to use iTunes, according to the biography, a move that helped the company add millions of new customers. The iTunes digital store, with more than 225 million registered users, generated almost $1.5 billion last quarter.

Robbin also was closely involved with the development of the iPod, including participating in a crucial 2001 meeting when Apple decided on the spin-wheel design of the digital music player and charted its expansion beyond personal computers to mobile computing, according to the book.

--Editors: Nick Turner, Jillian Ward

To contact the reporters on this story: Adam Satariano in San Francisco at
asatariano1@bloomberg.net


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知情人士透露，蘋果將安排iTunes軟件設計主管杰夫·羅賓(Jeff Robbin)領導一個內部電視機開發項目。

　　進軍客廳

　　業內人士認為，羅賓的參與表明蘋果將致力于把智能手機和平板電腦市場的領導地位拓展到客廳。在蘋果聯合創始人史蒂夫·喬布斯(Steve Jobs)去世前，曾經對傳記作家沃爾特·艾薩克森(Walter Isaacson)表示，他“終于破解了”如何在電視中整合簡單用戶界面的方法，從而與蘋果的其他設備無線同步內容。“它將擁有你所能想到的最簡單的用戶界面。”喬布斯對艾薩克森說。

　　蘋果發言人特魯蒂·穆勒(Trudy Muller)拒絕發表評論。

　　除了喬布斯傳(微博)記中記載的內容外，蘋果從未承認電視開發事宜。知情人士也表示，上述消息并不保證蘋果一定會推出電視機。

　　目前為止，蘋果在電視領域的努力主要限于Apple TV，這是一款99美元的機頂盒，可以方便用戶訪問iTunes、Netflix和YouTube的內容。喬布斯曾經將此稱作是蘋果的“業余愛好”，而非主要的創收來源。

　　原型機

　　但這種情況有可能會發生變化。美國投資銀行Piper Jaffray分析師基尼·蒙斯特(Gene Munster)表示，蘋果正在開發一款原型電視機，并有可能于明年或2013年正式上市。他的結論來自對蘋果亞洲供應商、業內關系以及蘋果專利組合的調查。蒙斯特表示，蘋果還在投資制造設施，以確保液晶屏的供應。

　　蒙斯特在周一發布的研究報告中稱，Siri語音控制軟件和iCloud網絡存儲服務也有可能被用于未來的電視機。Siri有助于搜索視頻，而iCloud則可以幫助用戶將視頻、音樂、圖片和其他內容存儲在蘋果的服務器上。

　　知情人士表示，蘋果新款電視機的目標是讓用戶無縫搜索電視或電影。例如，無需通過Netflix或有線電視服務查看某部電影或電視劇是否可以觀看，所有的內容都將整合在電視機的界面內。

　　預期業績

　　開發完整的電視機產品將使得蘋果與三星(微博)和索尼等消費電子巨頭展開更為正面的沖突。蒙斯特認為，明年的全球平板電視機銷量約為2.2億臺，蘋果將占據140萬臺。到2014年，該業務將為蘋果貢獻60億美元的收入。

　　蘋果在智能手機市場的競爭對手谷歌也試圖通過電視操作系統吸引用戶。但蘋果仍然遵循以往的慣例，獨立開發硬件和軟件。

　　除了電視機外，蘋果還有可能考慮新的視頻商業模式。例如，去年有媒體行業高管表示，蘋果已經在考慮是否推出訂閱電視服務。

　　重要高管

　　羅賓是在蘋果2000年收購SoundJam數字音樂播放器公司后加盟蘋果的。而由他主導開發的iTunes已經成為了各類蘋果設備的內容同步樞紐。

　　據《史蒂夫·喬布斯傳》的記載，喬布斯認為羅賓是一名非常有價值的員工，甚至要求《時代》周刊的記者不能將羅賓的姓氏刊登出來才允許其采訪羅賓，怕的是遭到競爭對手挖角。

　　此外，羅賓是勸說喬布斯允許iTunes兼容Windows的眾多蘋果高管之一，此舉也幫助蘋果新增了數百萬用戶。iTunes數字商店目前的注冊用戶超過2.25億，上一季度為蘋果創收15億美元。

　　羅賓還密切參與了iPod的開發，并于2001年參加了一次重要會議，蘋果正是在這次會議上決定采用轉輪設計，并將觸角拓展到移動計算領域的。