AppleInsider Staff
Cable television industry veteran Jean-François Mulé will take an engineering position at Apple for an undisclosed project, rekindling speculation that the Cupertino company is further developing a set-top cable box.
Mulé revealed his new position in a post to his LinkedIn page on Tuesday (via Multichannel), noting that he started working at Apple in September. Under the Experience column, Mulé said he would be "Challenged, inspired and part of something big" in his role as Engineering Director.
The hire was confirmed by Mulé's most recent employer CableLabs, which is now looking to fill the outgoing executive's former position of Senior VP of Technology Development.
Mulé has a pedigree in cable technology, and most recently worked for two years as CableLabs' SVP of Technology Development. During that time, he founded the firm's San Francisco office, which is currently building out a new research and development center in Sunnyvale, Calif. Prior to that, Mulé served as CableLabs' director of PacketCable Architecture and chief architect.
According to
It is unclear what Apple may have in mind with its new hire, but the company has recently been aggressively updating Apple TV software to include more channels and content. Rumors have it that Apple is looking to disrupt the cable set-top box market with a unique streaming device that ties in iCloud and possibly iOS device to create a cohesive ecosystem.
Most recently, rumblings indicate a next-generation Apple TV may hit store shelves as soon as OctoberT, though the exact hardware specifications are unknown. The third-generation Apple TV was released in March of 2012, though hardware updates have been sporadic since the device first launched in 2007.
William Gallagher
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39 Comments
god just buy tivo already and save me from my premier.
Apple should offer content providers like Game of Thrones 70% of the revenue for an a'la cart streaming service. These show producers will come running for that kind of money. Cable companies will simply become internet providers and TV as we know it will die.
And the Apple Television? Really how pathetic.
[quote name="GadgetCanadaV2" url="/t/159881/apple-hires-longtime-cable-exec-for-something-big#post_2409493"]Apple should offer content providers like Game of Thrones 70% of the revenue for an a'la cart streaming service. These show producers will come running for that kind of money. Cable companies will simply become internet providers and TV as we know it will die. [/quote] I see what you did there, you flipped the 30% cut Apple takes. "Don't think of it as you're giving us 30%, think of it as we're giving you 70%"
Apple should offer content providers like Game of Thrones 70% of the revenue for an a'la cart streaming service. These show producers will come running for that kind of money. Cable companies will simply become internet providers and TV as we know it will die.
I don't think it's that simple. For a lot of the shows on premium cable (like GoT), the cable network IS the producer, so their answer to Apple is "Why would we be happy with $0.70 from you, when we can have the whole dollar?". Of course, we think they're failing to see that they could sell many more copies of a single show than they have subscribers. But, I'm guessing that the viewer numbers for a show like GoT is close to the total number of HBO subscribers, which means they'd run the risk of cannibalizing sales of traditional subscriptions (roughly $200-300 year) with a season pass-type model, which only brings 70% of $30-50 per season.