IERI (Yesterday) I was telling you that Apple could produce a prototype of a new television for its customers and during the last evening those from Bloomberg they announced that the iTunes developer would be the one in charge of developing the new product. Jeff Robbin is the man who helped Apple in the development of the first model of the iPod and the iTunes store, and Apple is now asking him for help in the development of the television that everyone is waiting for. In the past, Steve Jobs considered Jeff Robbin one of the most important Apple employees, Jeff being the one who convinced Jobs to port the iTunes program to the Windows platform to attract new users.
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 is not public.
For this new TV, Apple is also thinking of a new method of delivering content to users, the company trying to create a system that would provide much easier access to TV shows or movies. Of course, for the time being everything is far from a possible launch, those from Bloomberg claiming that only in 2013 we might see the first TV on the market, but it seems that Apple is taking the launch of such a product seriously. If Jeff Robbin takes care of the project then we can expect a very interesting product, which could be as popular as iTunes or iPod.
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. (MSFT)'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.
