Tim Cook gave us some insight today into why Apple refers to the Apple TV as a hobby. Speaking during the Goldman Sachs keynote  Cook replied to the question “What’s holding you back from entering traditional television market, and what keeps the Apple TV in the hobby stage?”

“The reason we call it a hobby is because we don’t want to send a message to shareholders that we think the market for it is the same as the iPhone, iPad, Mac, etc. We don’t want people to think the leg of that stool is the same as others,” said Cook.

“Apple doesn’t do hobbies as a general rule. We believe in focus, only working on a few things. With Apple TV, however, despite the barriers in that market, for those of us who use it, we’ve always thought there was something there and that if we kept following our intuition and pulling the string, we might find something that is larger.”

He did finish with a possible nod to the upcoming iTV that has been heavily rumoured

“We need something special to make this a main market, to make TV a serious category for Apple,” he said.