During Apple's annual shareholder meeting, the company's CEO Tim Cook made it clear to investors that Apple is not resting on the laurels of the success of its current iOS lineup. He reassured investors that Apple remains focused on the long term and that it is exploring new product categories to enter. The CEO wouldn't reveal any specifics, but we have a pretty good idea what those "new categories" are.
The biggest and most anticipated market for Apple to enter is the TV market. Apple has always referred to its Apple TV set-top box as a hobby, one that Apple has been working on since it released the original version in January 2007. In Steve Jobs' biography written by Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs told him: "I'd like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use. It would be seamlessly synched with all of your devices and with iCloud. It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it."
An Apple television can pretty much be confirmed to be one of those new product categories. There have been rumors that the television will be launched sometime this year. Tim Cook also told NBC's Brian Williams in an interview that current televisions on the market make him feel like he's "gone backwards in time by 20 to 30 years." He also confirmed that the television space is something of "intense interest" for Apple.
Another product category Apple is believed to be actively working on is an iOS-based smartwatch. Bloomberg, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal have all recently reported that sources told them Apple is working on an iOS based wristwatch. Bloomberg reports that Apple has a team of over 100 product designers working on the iOS smartwatch and that "the device is past the experimentation phase, and is being built by designers who worked on the iPhone and iPad."
