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Macintosh TV, the option to watch television created by Apple in 1993

Apple’s Macintosh TV in 1993. (Macrumors)

Now Manzana has a varied list of devices released to the market. From the iphonegoing by iPad, Mac, apple watch, in addition to others that are in development and will soon see the light of day such as mixed reality glasses. However, the company founded by Steve Jobs has had in its history some releases that were not well received by users, who forced it to discontinue them.

In 1993 the company launched a device known as Macintosh TV which, according to Apple, combined the functions of a computer monitor, a television and a CD player with the intention of competing with other technology brands that sold each of these products separately.

The product of Manzana It also included a series of accessories such as a keyboard and a mouse to fulfill the functions of a desktop computer, as well as a remote control that worked when its use as a television was activated.

Advertisement for Apple's Macintosh TV in 1993. (Arstechnica)
Advertisement for Apple’s Macintosh TV in 1993. (Arstechnica)

Due to the characteristics that televisions had at that time and those that current devices have, the Macintosh It could be considered one of the first Smart TVs, as it had options to adapt to the needs of people and the predecessor of the Apple TV device, which allows users to watch their favorite programs available in the catalog of Manzana.

According to the advertisement published by Jobs’ company catalogue, the Macintosh It also included some pre-installed software as well as programs that could be installed via CD such as World Atlas, Kodak Photo, among others that were part of the device package.

However, one of the reasons that led to the failure of these devices was the high price of $2,099 with which it reached stores. The same company had a $1,500 Mac monitor with the regular features of an artifact of the time and the main differentiators like the remote control, tuner for the TV function, and the color screen did not justify more than $500 of cost. difference between both prices. Due to the different applications that it had and despite being more expensive, the Macintosh TV it did not perform better than Macs, but rather was slower in executing activities.

Apple's Macintosh TV in 1993. (Arstechnica)
Apple’s Macintosh TV in 1993. (Arstechnica)

It was as a result of this that after two years in which the sales of this product did not reach the necessary standards to be considered beneficial for the company, the monitor Macintosh TV was discontinued by Manzana and withdrawn from stores after having sold only 10,000 units in that period of time until February 1995, which led to it being listed as one of the company’s great failures in its history from its founding to the present.

It is because of this bad experience that during the 2004 Macworld event, Steve Jobs, who was the CEO of the company at the time, indicated that he did not welcome the idea of ​​combining the functions of a computer and a television. “We don’t think televisions and computers are going to merge,” he said. “We think that a person watches television to turn off his brain and when he works, he turns it on,” he added.

However, currently you can buy subscription packages to streaming pages from which you can view various content using not only a computer, but also a smartphone, tablet or laptop.

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