Apple this week buoyed rumors of a more advanced version of its Apple TV product being under development with a new job listing that seeks an engineering lead to help oversee development of features destined for the much-anticipated overhaul of the platform.
The listing, which turned up on Apple's own jobs listing website Thursday, seeks a qualified engineering manager with a proven track record of technical leadership, delivering consumer products with aggressive schedules.
The Apple TV team is looking for an experienced engineering manager to help deliver the next generation features for Apple TV. Bring your creative energy and engineering discipline, and help us bring the Apple experience to the Living Room.
The call put out by Apple comes on the heels of back-and-forth rumors over whether Apple will use a media event sometime in the next couple of months to, at a bare minimum, discuss plans for an overhaul of Apple TV that would materialize later in the year.
"It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine," Jobs was quoted as saying. "I finally cracked it."
While industry watchers have for years been predicting that Apple would expand its Apple TV device from a niche product into a bustling platform that would reshape the television experience, the company has thus far produced only minor updates to the device through software and processor upgrades -- this despite claims made by late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs to official biographer Walter Isaacson that he had "finally cracked" the secret to the future of television.
Rumors that 2013 could finally be the year for Apple's TV revolution received a shot in the arm earlier this week when an analyst for Jefferies Equity Research said he'd heard chatter of a March media event from Apple that could lay the groundwork for a launch later in the year.
Although those rumors were quickly shot down, other analysts -- including the well-respected Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray -- have since gone on to advise clients that Apple is still likely to introduce an updated version of Apple TV within the next 6 months, with an updated version of its operating system that could serve to 'prime the pump' for the ultimate television.