Two reasons Apple discontinued the product: Founder Steve Jobs said the company had “finally cracked it”

Apple, before the launch of the Apple TV app and Apple TV set-top box, was exploring a full-fledged TV with touchscreen capabilities, a report said. The prototypes of these devices were already ready when Steve Jobs claimed before his death that he had solved the puzzle of creating a device Apple TV. However, this vision was never realized.
According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, before his death in 2011, the Apple co-founder told biographer Walter Isaacson that he had “finally cracked it,” referring to large-display prototypes that could double as a touchscreen Mac or iPad.
The product would sync with other devices and the iCloud service, Jobs said, and have “the simplest interface imaginable.”

Apple has put the launch of a TV-like device on hold

Gurman said that despite this progress, Apple ultimately shelved the project for two reasons. On the one hand there were the low profit margins, on the other hand there were the high production and shipping costs.
Gurman said Apple’s analysis of the TV market as a company suggests that TVs offer low margins and consumers typically don’t buy new devices as frequently as they switch to iPhones or Mac PCs.
“The effort never extended to the Apple Watch or Vision Pro – or even the now-defunct self-driving car. Televisions are a low-margin industry and consumers don’t buy new sets very often. Back then, Apple relied heavily on people upgrading their iPhones, iPads, and Macs as often as possible (that’s still true today, but the company at least has a healthier services business). “A device with low margins and no ability to upgrade would have been a mistake,” Gurman added.
The high manufacturing costs also proved to be an exclusion criterion. The overall cost of shipping television-like devices from factories to people’s homes also raised concerns.
“Apple also immediately faced cost concerns, including the cost of airlifting huge panels from factories to warehouses to homes. The company would have had to develop and produce new chips to power the displays and input-output electronics. And the project would have required production facilities for the high-quality screens and sufficient glass supplies,” Gurman added.
However, it seems that Jobs’ “TV dream” may not be dead, as there is speculation that Apple is working on a television. You can read more about this here.

Introducing the Apple TV set-top box and upcoming smart displays

However, this did not affect Apple’s efforts to reach people’s televisions. Apple now offers an Apple TV Box for streaming and an Apple TV+ app with a selection of successful content.
Gurman also said that Apple is actively developing various smart home devices, including a wall-mounted smart screen “that users can stick in their kitchen for video conferencing and looking up recipes.”
Notably, Amazon recently launched a 21-inch smart display and gave the Echo Show 15 an upgrade. In comparison, Apple’s version is said to be about the size of two iPhones side by side, so the total screen size is under 7 inches.