Apple is definitely coming out with a television, said venture capitalist Marc Andreessen at the DealBook conference this morning.
He thinks it comes out in 2014, maybe 2013, and if not either of those, then definitely by 2015. So, in the next three years.
Andreessen isn't just a venture capitalist. He's also on the board of Facebook and HP. He's super plugged into what's happening in tech and in the Valley.
He warned that Apple is a "vault," so no one really knows what's happening inside the company. That said, he says the rumors about an Apple television are strong, and it's one of those poorly kept Valley secrets.
He doesn't know what the Apple TV will look like, but he knows this: Once it comes out, everyone else will scramble to copy it.
"There's a pattern in our industry, Apple crystallizes the product" says Andreessen, "and the minute Apple crystallizes it, then everyone knows how to compete."
When the Apple TV is launched, Microsoft and Google will start adjusting their strategy to react to Apple, says Andreessen. That's a polite way of saying they copy what Apple does then figure out how to add their strength to the product.
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