He noted that Apple would team up with one of its existing suppliers to make the televisions. The problem with that theory is that Apple's display providers also make televisions. If they made televisions for Apple, they'd be competing with their own TV lines. The exec discounted that barrier to Apple's entry into television sets. "If you have to be competing with somebody, you want to be competing with yourself," he .

If Apple launches a television set, it will be trying to succeed where it and other high-profile, high-tech names have failed before.

Apple's set-top box hasn't captured the market's imagination since its introduction. And a television venture by Google, where a version of its mobile operating system, Android, a competitor of iOS, was incorporated into TV sets either.

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