Apple Hires Cable Industry Veteran Jean-François Mulé as Engineering Director

Tuesday October 1, 2013 5:47 pm PDT by Jordan Golson
Jean-François MuléApple has hired Jean-François Mulé, the former Senior VP of Technology Development and longtime employee of CableLabs -- an R&D joint venture run by many of the biggest cable operators in the U.S. -- as an engineering director.

The hire was revealed on Mulé's LinkedIn page and first noted by Multichannel News. He has been working at Apple since September and says in his Apple job description that he is "challenged, inspired and part of something big".

He claims extensive experience in software development for cable applications like Internet data, IP voice and video, TV apps and more. From Multichannel News:
Before joining Apple, Mulé spent the last two years as senior vice president of technology development at CableLabs, where he founded the organization’s San Francisco office (CableLabs is in the process of building out a new R&D outpost/innovation center in Sunnyvale).

During his earlier career at CableLabs, Mulé also served as VP of IP technologies and services, director of the PacketCable Architecture, and chief architect. During that span, he ran or helped spearhead several projects, including PeerConnect, the cable industry’s peering registry, a development program for cable industry-focused wireless services (Wi-Fi gateways, device management, inter-operator Wi-Fi roaming, and mobile offload services using femtocells and Wi-Fi), and was involved in several high-profile, IP-based CableLabs programs such as DOCSIS 3.0 and APIs for second screen video apps.
Apple is rumored to be developing both a television set and an expanded set-top box that would work with services provided by existing cable television providers, or, alternatively, a set-top box with television content provided directly by Apple over the Internet, bypassing current cable companies.

In his biography, Steve Jobs said he had "cracked" the redesign of television to make it seamless and easy to use, and some analysts have been claiming for years that Apple is working on a television set.

With Apple negotiating with both content providers like Sky News and ESPN, as well as cable companies like Time Warner, the company appears to be examining multiple possible strategies for reinventing television.

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gatearray
80 months ago
Toshiba just announced lay-offs because they can't make any money selling TVs, so if you think Apple wants to enter the razor thin single-digit margin world of TVs you're not thinking like a business would.

http://www.afterdawn.com/news/article.cfm/2013/10/01/toshiba_to_cut_3000_jobs_from_struggling_tv_division

Now, making a "converter box" with a nice Apple GUI and all the bells and whistles is another matter entirely. Let some other company make 5% selling the glorified panel...

Think about it, does the Apple Store at the mall really want to stock, sell, and service 50" or 60" televisions for virtually no profit, while taking away all that physical space from tiny, high margin products that people upgrade every couple of years?

Ain't gonna happen in my opinion. :)
Rating: 16 Votes
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diddl14
80 months ago
"The Cable Guy"
Rating: 13 Votes
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WatchTheThrone
80 months ago
Hopefully Apple does something industry changing with tv. Cable right now sucks since I have to buy 200 channels just to get 5 channels that I actually watch.
Rating: 7 Votes
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swarmster
80 months ago

Toshiba just announced lay-offs because they can't make any money selling TVs, so if you think Apple wants to enter the razor thin single-digit margin world of TVs you're not thinking like a business would.

http://www.afterdawn.com/news/article.cfm/2013/10/01/toshiba_to_cut_3000_jobs_from_struggling_tv_division

Now, making a "converter box" with a nice Apple GUI and all the bells and whistles is another matter entirely. Let some other company make 5% selling the glorified panel...

Think about it, does the Apple Store at the mall really want to stock, sell, and service 50" or 60" televisions for virtually no profit, while taking away all that physical space from tiny, high margin products that people upgrade every couple of years?

Ain't gonna happen in my opinion. :)


I love comments like yours because its similarity to the way people acted before the iPhone reveal makes me excited for what Apple could put out.

'Why would Apple want to make a phone? iPods are where the money is. Nokia owns the market with tons of cheap phones. Why would anyone want to pay a premium for an Apple phone when they already have one that can make calls perfectly fine? The ROKR even plays music!'
Rating: 4 Votes
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Atomic Walrus
80 months ago
No interest in an actual Apple TV set (I'm sure it'd be an excellent LCD, but no LCD is replacing the Kuro), but an alternative to cable from a company like Apple couldn't come soon enough. I'd even take an Apple-made set top box that I still have to use through my local cable monopoly, anything is better than the stuff those guys produce.
Rating: 3 Votes
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tbrand7
80 months ago
My body is ready :D
Rating: 3 Votes
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Ochyandkaren
80 months ago

Apple will not enter a razor thin profit margin business to compete as is. For you to even pose a rhetorical question about that means you don't understand Apple. If they do something with TV, they will create an adjacent market and further disrupt the existing TV market and not simply try to exist in it as is.

If Apple puts out a TV, they won't just be selling the panel. They will be selling services, content, the panel, and who knows what else to make the margins they require.

TVs no longer need to be what they were. A large panel on the wall in your house can and should do more for you. TVs are computers, computers are TVs. In the end, a smart Cinema Display line could cause TV manufacturers a great deal of grief as Apple has the resources to offer things the competition can't. There is a ton of money in the TV business. There just isn't enough profit under the current model for panel manufactures.

TV is ripe for disruption from all aspects. Panels are commodities, everyone has their me too Smart TV capabilities that don't actually fix what is really broken in TV which is consumption models, content, delivery, and user experience. I hope Apple smashes this one out of the park no matter what the actual product looks like. I just want these problems fixed with a panel or not.


Indeed.
Rating: 2 Votes
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AidenShaw
80 months ago

My body is ready :D


It would be "so Apple" to have a glossy screen that washes out what you intend to watch.


Which TV OEMs would Apple license to?


Apple would choose one of the best TV makers out there (and the one that's making a profit selling TVs) - Samsung.
Rating: 2 Votes
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WatchTheThrone
80 months ago

There is a lot of crap, but better to have a lot of options instead of just a few. Also people have different interests than you, just because there are some you don't watch, others may like them.

If you're referring to a la carte, I don't see that happening anytime soon.


That's exactly what I meant. Different people have different taste. A la carte is what I meant without actually saying it and it will happen!! And who better to do it than Apple. They changed the music industry and now It's time for the tv to change.
At first the industry is going to fight it but just like the music industry they too will fold....eventually.
Rating: 2 Votes
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teknikal90
80 months ago

My body is ready :D


knowing apple, the tv would probably be a lot smaller...but is better 'quality'
Rating: 2 Votes

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