Apple CEO Cook was recently discussing the 2011 sales figures for its Apple TV set-top-box at a Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference. Cook again described the Apple TV device as a hobby but revealed the company sold just under three million units during 2011 according to an article on T3.com.

Cook went on to say that the company “doesn’t do hobbies as a general rule”, and that the set-top-box was the Apple’s way of testing out the TV market. He went on to say that Apple would need something “special” if the company wants to make the TV a “serious category”.

The Apple CEO went on to explain why the company calls the Apple TV a hobby, as it is not thought the Apple TV can achieve the market size of other parts of the company’s business. Cook feels that Apple could discover something that was bigger, and that its move into the sector “could go more main-market”.

Rumors surrounding Apple bringing out a branded TV have been increasing in recent months, which ramped up after the recent release of the Steve Jobs biography. A number of screen sizes have been rumored with the company supposedly going shopping for components for the device recently.

There have also been claims that any such device from Apple could feature the Siri assistant feature currently only found on the iPhone 4S. As with any Apple device if the rumored iTV does exist it is likely to come with a premium price, and it will have to raise the bar if consumers are to spend big amounts on it.

Do you think Apple will need to offer something special with a TV set?

AllThingsD still cannot be certain as to the exact date for the iPhone 5 media event, but they believe the 4th of October to be it. As that is less than two weeks away we would presume that Apple would announce something very shortly. We already know that the handset will follow a few weeks later, but we have news that the UK still might not get it at launch, which we will elaborate more in a later article.

Let’s not feel too sorry for Cook that all eyes will be on him, because once you look at his pay packet you wouldn’t mind taking to the stage to try and unveil their best-selling device. It will be interesting to see how he will cope with being under the spotlight for a lengthy amount of time. There are some Steve Jobs fans that hope that Cook’s one more thing will be the appearance of the ex CEO, but that could have a negative effect on not only Apple but the new man in control of things.

Steve Cook will not have the same rapport with his audience as Jobs did, so will no doubt have to call upon the help of Phil Schiller, Scott Forstall and Eddy Cue. Let’s hope that there are no issues with the iPhone 5, as that would be a trust test of how Cook can handle the pressure.

According to an article on AppleInsider a survey has suggested that the Apple brand is bigger than a single person, and that the consumer perception of the company rose after the resignation of Steve Jobs. The poll carried out by YouGov BrandIndex showed that consumer’s thoughts of the company fluctuated shortly after the news that Jobs had stepped down as CEO.

As the coverage of the situation increased so did the company’s reputation, just a few days before the announcement was made the Apple were sitting on 35 points on the poll’s scale. By the time Steve Jobs had left and handed the reins over to Tim Cook this had shot up to almost 60 points.

Adults took part in the poll and were asked if they had heard anything about Apple in the last fortnight. This rose 17% during the past fourteen days that was mainly down to the news about Steve Jobs. The polls scores range from -100 to 100, and is worked out by taking negative responses from positive.

5,000 people aged 18 and above are interviewed by YouGov BrandIndex every weekday from the US population. There is a margin of error of + or – two percent, and over 1.2 million interviews are taken each year. Jobs had been on medical leave since January but still managed to introduce the iPad 2 and iCloud at Apple events.

Do you think Apple is still in safe hands?

According to ComputerWorld Apple want Tim Cook to be the company’s CEO for at least 10 years, apparently as part of the deal the board appointed Mr. Cook with 1 million restricted shares – if he is still with Apple in August 2015 he will get half of these, if he makes it through to August 2021 he will receive the other half.

To put this into some sort of context on Friday these shares would be worth nearly $400 million, below we have embedded an image showing the change in Apple’s share prices over the last 10 years according to Yahoo! Finance, in August 2001 (10 years ago) shares were worth roughly $9.5 USD each, today they are worth nearer $383.5 USD. If Apple continue to grow year on year like they have Cook’s 1 million shares could possibly be worth 1 billion in 2021 (or a lot more), that said there is always a chance that Apple’s shares will drop – but we doubt it.

It is hard to imagine Apple without Steve Jobs at the helm as he has become a symbol of his company, we think the next major Apple unveiling, presumably the iPhone 5, will give Tim Cook his opportunity to really make an impact – we can’t wait to see the stock market reaction as it will really give us some insight into what the next few years for Apple will be like, if stocks drop it will be interesting to see what predictions analysts make and how Apple fans react.

Tim Cook made the Verizon iPhone 4 announcement back in January as Steve Jobs was taking medical leave, however in March Steve Jobs revealed the iPad 2, since then consumers have been waiting for the fifth-generation iPhone, next-gen iPod Touch a next-gen iPod Nano – we are led to believe that all will show up in September so Cook is being thrown in at the deep end – do you think he will come out on top? Or be hounded by critics? We would love to hear your opinions.