Apple TV to become iTV?

Posted on 13 Aug 2010 at 11:07

Apple's iEverything branding may make it easier to spot its products in a crowded shop, but could leave it in hot water in international markets if a rumoured rebranding of the company's Apple TV product goes ahead.

Tech news site Engadget

quotes "a trusted source" as claiming that the next revision of the company's set-top box will be named the iTV - bringing the product in line with other Apple consumer-grade offerings such as the iPhone, iPad, and iPod ranges.

While that sounds like a great idea for US markets, the company might have a slightly harder job ahead of it in the UK - as independent broadcaster ITV is unlikely to cede its moniker without a fight.

While the two companies are engaged in very different businesses - with ITV concentrating on providing advertising-funded television programmes, and Apple looking more towards computing devices and associated software - the fact that iTV connects to the same TV you're likely to be viewing ITV on is enough to argue the possibility of confusion.

Although ITV - the broadcaster - isn't currently in the business of making set-top boxes, it can claim prior art over Apple in this realm:

when ONdigital rebranded itself as ITV Digital in 2001, several ITV Digital-branded set-top boxes were manufactured for the UK market.

So far Apple itself hasn't confirmed the re-naming exercise - nor other details revealed by Engadget's source, including the rumoured iPhone-based internals or lack of 1080p HD output of the next-generation Apple TV unit.

Author: Gareth Halfacree

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