X
Business

The color purple: Could the WWDC logo foretell a TiVo partnership?

Rumors are swirling about what Apple might announce at WWDC, but the 2013 logo might be the biggest clue of all.
Written by Jason D. O'Grady, Contributor

Much has been written about Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2013 logo, and eager Apple watchers are looking to it for clues about what the company might announce on June 10.

Does the WWDC logo foretell a TiVo acquisition? - Jason O'Grady
Images: TiVo; Apple; Jason D O'Grady/ZDNet

While iOS 7 and OS X 10.9 are foregone conclusions, the WWDC logo might be a clever hint at what's to come. Many have noted that the WWDC '13 logo is almost the exact shape of the Apple TV puck.

While the logo shares the rounded square shape of the puck, there are variations behind it in different colors. If you look closely at the colors behind the purple square, they include red, green, orange, and blue — the exact colors found on another familiar logo: That of TiVo.

While it's a bit of a stretch (granted), it's not out of the realm of possibility, either. I've long been saying that Apple should acquire TiVo (in 2006 and 2009), and it's been rumored as far back as 2005. Apple's certainly got the capital, but I'm afraid that that ship might have sailed.

The cable companies have started to catch up to TiVo with their DVR technology (kind of), and Apple will need deals with all of them to get any substantive traction on the set top.

Jason Calacanis told ZDNet's sister site CNET UK in October 2008 that he "knew first-hand that Apple was working on a networked television". But two-plus years before that (on January 6, 2006), I wrote on The PowerPage about how Apple might release a television at Macworld Expo 2006.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster has long claimed that a television will be Apple's next big thing, and Steve Jobs told his biographer that he had "finally cracked it" shortly before his death.

Jobs told Walter Isaacson:

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.

Don't get me wrong; I love the idea of an Apple television, I just think that it's a long shot for WWDC.

Editorial standards