Apple Vowed To Revolutionize Television. An Inside Look at Why It Hasn’t - Bloomberg

Tangentially, see Apple Struggles to Make Big Deals, Hampering Strategy Shifts (Bloomberg); also see Acquisitions in Tech have a Checkered History (Tech.pinions)

"Early on, the Apple TV was going to replace the clunky set-top boxes from the cable companies and stream live television. It never happened. The team debated bundling a gaming controller with the current model to better compete with Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox and Sony Corp.'s PlayStation. That didn't happen either. Originally, viewers were going to be able to shout commands from the couch to the Apple TV. Instead they must talk to the remote control.

Apple has essentially settled for turning the television set into a giant iPhone: a cluster of apps with a store. "That's not what I signed up for," says one of the people, who requested anonymity to talk freely about internal company matters. "I signed up for revolutionary. We got evolutionary." Gene Munster, who covered Apple for more than a decade as a Piper Jaffray analyst and now runs Loup Ventures, echoes the criticism. "Apple TV begs the question: Why does Apple do hobbies?" he says. "Either do it right or don't do it at all.""

Apple Vowed To Revolutionize Television. An Inside Look at Why It Hasn’t - Bloomberg