Apple CEO Tim Cook isn't giving up on the Apple TV yet.

Why? Because, as he told conference attendees at the D10 conference, "I would say most people would say this is not an area in their life that they're pleased with."

Translation: People hate their TV sets.

The Apple TV product has struggled in part because it's not really a TV: It's a TV set-top box. You still have to plug it into a screen.

People want an Apple-like experience from an all-in-one unit which combines screen and smarts in one—something like the iMac desktop computer, but for the living room.

Cook wouldn't admit Apple was working on such a device.

"We would ask, can we control the tech?" he asked rhetorically. "Can we make a contribution in this area? Can we make a product that we would want? Those are things we would ask about any new product category."

He did say he loved his Apple TV, though. And he noted some new sales figures: Apple sold less than 3 million of the devices in 2011. So far this year—five months in—Apple has sold 2.7 million.