Apple Snags CableLabs Exec to Work on “Something Big”

Tim Cook says that TV continues to be an area of great interest to Apple, and that the company has a “grand vision” for it. Could its latest hire be part of a move to realize it?

Last month, Apple hired cable television industry veteran Jean-François Mulé away from CableLabs, a sort of think tank for the cable TV industry. The company gave him the title of engineering director and assigned him to an undisclosed project that Mulé enthusiastically describes on his LinkedIn page as “something big.”

Just what that means, if it means anything, is hard to say. But, given his background and expertise in cable engineering — Mulé spent the last two years as SVP of technology development at CableLabs — it seems likely that he will be involved somehow in the continued evolution of Apple TV, helping Apple to “keep pulling the string and see where it takes us,” as Cook likes to say.

Apple did not respond to a request for comment on the nature of Mulé’s work.