Apple Looks in 2013

Apple Looks in 2013



Apple TV,

Has there ever been an Apple product with this much rumor intensity behind it? Well sure the iPad, and the iPhone before it. As the saying goes, where there's smoke there's fire, and the chances of Apple finally releasing a big new TV product in 2013 are looking hot.

Uncertainty remains over just what kind of a product Apple's working on though. The company already has a set-top box, but it's not for plugging into your cable. Instead, its main purpose is to connect with Apple's digital stores, along with third-party streaming services like Netflix and Hulu. More recently Apple's added options to pipe video and other media content from iOS and Mac devices on the same Wi-Fi network.

Would Apple really forgo something small, simple, and cheap for what is likely to be an expensive piece of hardware that's difficult to ship, stock, and that people are likely to replace maybe once every five years .Apple to roll out a smarter set-top box with better ways to view TV programming and control basic TV functions two things Apple's current models can't do.

In 2013 will be the year of peace. We already had a taste of that with the 10-year truce announced between Apple and HTC in November. I think there's a good chance we'll see the same from two remaining fights Apple's in with rivals.

The clear frontrunner is Apple's spat with Samsung. It's been a nasty fight, and one that's got more nastiness in line with yet another trial that kicks off in 2014. The two sides have already met several times to talk things out, something that did not go anywhere. Samsung, for its part, has gone back and forth saying it's not willing to negotiate, while also recently pointing out that it was "willing to sit down to talk it out again.

The other big fight is between Apple and Google. While late Apple CEO Steve Jobs pledged a thermonuclear war on Google's Android, current Apple CEO Tim Cook has suggested he's not as interested in litigation. Both fights with HTC and Samsung have been seen as proxies for a larger battle with Google. With that said, the first jabs in that fight in the form of a lawsuit between Apple and now Google-owned Motorola Mobility has not gotten off to a very promising start. A Wisconsin judge tossed out the case last month.