Jean-Francois Mule, who recently served as a Senior Vice President at CableLabs, has joined Apple, according to his LinkedIn profile. The move was first noted by MultiChannel News. CableLabs is a consortium made up of cable providers that works with these providers in order to bring new TV-related technologies to life. At Apple, Mule will work as an Engineering Director, but it is currently unclear was his precise role will be. Apple has Engineering Directors in many departments across the company, so it is unclear if his role will actually be connected to TV-development.
According to his CrunchBase Profile, Mule worked on the technology side of TV operations at CableLabs:
Apple has long been rumored to be developing a new device for the living room centering around television programming. Rumors have been split between Apple working on a full-fledged set and a new box. Recent rumors have pointed to some-sort of Apple TV hardware update later this year, and we’ve heard that Apple is developing motion controlled features for future generations of the Apple TV.
Many have noted that Mule says he will be working on “something big” for Apple. However, Apple commonly tells its employees that they are working on “big” products, and this is likely just opinion on his part. It’s unlikely that, since he joined Apple in September, he would already know the complete scope of the projects he will be apart of.
Mule’s experience in mobile TV and second-screen applications is particularly interesting in light of a recent Apple acquisition. Earlier this year, Apple acquired a service called Matcha that users devices like iPads to round-up TV programming options.
