Yahoo Finance 
Tim Cook just reignited speculation about Apple's 'bigger' plans for TV
(Apple CEO Tim CookREUTERS/Lucy Nicholson )
Investors and Apple fans have long been waiting for Apple to do something big with TVs.
Sure, Apple has sold the Apple TV box for years. But that box is really just a streaming box that attaches to your television, not much different from a Roku.
The real hope is that Apple would completely re-invent the television, the way that it reinvented cell phones with the iPhone. But year after year, despite analyst forecasts, Apple has disappointed those waiting for the big TV play.
Now Tim Cook has gotten their hopes up again.
During Apple's quarterly earnings conference call on Tuesday, Cook gave an interesting answer to a question about Apple's plans for TV and video content:
"The introduction of Apple TV and TV OS last October and the subsequent OS releases and what’s coming out this fall... think of that as sort of building the foundation for what we believe can be a broader business over time. I don’t want to be more precise than that. But you shouldn’t look at what’s there today and think we've done what we want to do. We’ve built a foundation that we think we can do something bigger off of."
That leaves plenty of room for interpretation.
Perhaps Cook is referring to Apple playing a bigger role in the content business. In fact, just before Apple announced its earnings on Tuesday, Variety reported that Apple has bought the popular "Carpool Karaoke" television series.
And Apple was previously reported to have been working on developing a streaming television service of its own to compete with cable TV.
But Apple's hardware roots might mean that any streaming service would come alongside a new kind of television set itself — not just a settop box.
Whatever Apple has in store, Cook's latest comments are sure to start a new round of speculation.
NOW WATCH: 'Pokémon Go' just released an update that fixes its most annoying problems
More From Business Insider
