Apple

In order for Apple Inc. to carry out Steve Jobs’ TV vision to have Smart TVs available for TV Lift Cabinets, they need to secure TV content.  However, they aren’t getting the streaming video content they need.  The reason is they are not playing nice with TV content providers.

Apparently, Apple wants to call all the shots and dictate the price they pay for premium content.  TV content providers are not feeling as generous.  One executive complained that Apple wants “everything for nothing”.  Already TV content providers have blocked others from streaming video content.  TV networks blocked Google TV from streaming video on their website and Netflix lost Starz content this month.

TV content providers hold the higher hand.   If Apple wishes to bring the Smart TV to every living room, they are going to have to be a little lenient on their wish list and bring more cash to the negotiating table.

While Apple is busy keeping their planning under wraps, the rest of us are busy trying to discover what they are up to, especially when it comes to their iTV.

What has been leaked through the grapevine is that Samsung Electronics in Korea has started producing chips for the iTVs since November 2011.  Sharp also is rumored to be producing the displays for the new TVs.  The screens will be relatively small for the initial introductory phase at between 32 and 37 inches and will be better suited for the small foot of the bed TV lift cabinets.

Sterne Agee Analyst Shaw Wu wrote, ““We continue to hear what AAPL would love to do is offer users the ability to choose their own customized programming, i.e., whichever channels/shows they want for a monthly subscription fee. This is obviously much more complicated from a licensing standpoint. And in our view, would change the game for television and give AAPL a big leg-up against the competition.”

Wu goes on to write about how the biggest obstacle

Hulu, the online video service, is in the market for a buyer.  Over the last few months, Hulu has been shopping around for the most lucrative offer.  While Microsoft stepped down from the bidding war, it now appears that Apple is interested.  According to a Mashable related article, two people who weren’t authorized to speak publicly, let it leak that Apple has stepped into the bidding negotiations.

With Hulu, people can enjoy directly from their TV lift cabinets, hundreds of television shows and movies for free.  To make this happen, Hulu is partnered with NBCUniversal, News Corporation, The Walt Disney Company, and Providence Equity Partners.  While people can watch free programs and movies, they do have to endure through lengthy advertisements as this is how Hulu makes money.

The bidding war may go as high as $2 billion, according to The Business Insider.  If rumor is true, Apple will be bidding against Yahoo.  The deal includes five years of programming including two

Few would argue that Apple is a successful company. The company has given us the iPhone, iPad, iPod, iTunes and Mac computers. Apple iPads were one of the hottest gifts of 2010 and the company is on the verge of releasing the iPad 2. Verizon Wireless made headlines about two weeks ago when it announced it would carry the infamous iPhone and include the ability to use your iPhone as a mobile hotspot for computer internet access.

Now we know that Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, is taking a permanent medical leave of absence, and he’s been a driving force of innovation for Apple, but many things have already been set in place to keep Apple moving forward without him, including the fact that Apple has been issued 563 different patents in 2010 for new products.

Of course, this doesn’t mean Apple will be producing 563 new exciting devices like the iPad, but some of them could change the way we interact with our environment, the way we “channel surf” and the way we enter our homes.

A couple of Apple’s