Evidence points toward Apple releasing HDTV this year - report

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  • Reply 61 of 197
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by RichyS View Post


    Licensing AirPlay with video to TV makers is really no different to licensing the 30-pin connector for the myriad of dock makers. Or indeed, any of the other 'Made for iPod/iPhone' kit out there. The fact that 95% (stat pulled from my arse) of all docks, cases, cars, etc. only really work with iPods is part of the reason the iPod commands such market dominance.



    As long as the AirPlay experience is good (and why wouldn't it be -- it's essentially initiated by the iDevice); licensing it will only help Apple sell more hardware.



    i was responding more to the idea of apple partnering with LG to produce the TVs.
  • Reply 62 of 197
    The biggest problem with the TV idea is where Apple is going to sell these. TVs take up a LOT of space. Apple has extremely limited space in their stores. Are they going to devote these to iPads, iPhones, iPods and Macs, which don't take up much space, or TVs, which do and don't have tremendous margins either...
  • Reply 63 of 197
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by cy_starkman View Post




    Making a TV... they would need to enter under the market not above it to be disruptive.



    i'm quite sure they managed to disrupt the cell phone market with a $600 no-subsidy product.
  • Reply 64 of 197
    Actually I revise my pricing bracket.



    It will start at $299 and go upto $599. Or maybe $399 to $699



    won't need batteries.
  • Reply 65 of 197
    tardistardis Posts: 94member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by OlivierL View Post


    THIS IS STUPID.



    Apple is ALREADY making TV Sets : this is called a HDMI TV + Apple TV.

    It comes in all size, color, shape and technology. It's only $99 more than any existing TV set sold and any HDMI TV can be upgraded for the same $99.



    And if the hardware is upgraded in 2 years, it will cost only $99 to upgrade to the new version.

    And your $1000 display panel won't be "obsolete" in 2 years.



    Finally, somebody gets it.



    AppleInsider should relegate anything Gene Munster says about Apple going into the TV making business to a separate website. The idea simply does not make sense.
  • Reply 66 of 197
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by addicted44 View Post


    The biggest problem with the TV idea is where Apple is going to sell these. TVs take up a LOT of space. Apple has extremely limited space in their stores. Are they going to devote these to iPads, iPhones, iPods and Macs, which don't take up much space, or TVs, which do and don't have tremendous margins either...



    Cuthroat TVs with no distinguishing features (aka, everything at best buy) are low margin. Apple creates value with their superior UI and industrial design. Any TV they make will have proper margins, or else they won't make it.



    As for retail space, how many TVs do they need to have on display in their stores? It's not like an iPad where every customer needs to play with it in their hands. They already have at least one in each store to display the current Apple TV. Also, they're moving away from in-store physical software sales, in order to free up space.



    They have the boutique areas in most Best Buys, as well.
  • Reply 67 of 197
    bullheadbullhead Posts: 493member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Lorre View Post


    I don't buy it, and I never will. Even if Apple does release a TV, I would consider it a really stupid move.



    Face it, a TV is nowadays nothing more than a dumb screen. It's the things you connect to your TV that make it an awesome device. Your cable settop box, your BluRay player, your XBox 360. That's what makes people like sitting in front of the TV. The TV itself is a dumb commodity product.



    So in stead of making a TV, I think Apple should make a device that connects to your TV. Something that allows you to watch all your cool iTunes content on that big screen in your living room. It would be cool if this little box would also allow AirPlay streaming and.. oh wait... I guess they already sell one of these little boxes.



    So yeah, all Apple needs to do is make the Apple TV as attractive as possible by adding cool new revolutionary features to it. It's only 99 bucks and people can connect it either a $250 WallMart piece of junk, or a $4000 high end Sony TV.



    There is absolutely ZERO reason why Apple would actually make a TV set. I challenge you to give me one.





    +1. The issues TV has today is the crippled nature of the content. Great, IOS directly built into the TV. What does that do for you besides lock you into obsolete hardware? TV's are a commodity market...there is no money to make there.



    The money is in the services/content you can offer via that big screen. Which is something Apple already has in Apple TV...which works on all TVs and is cheap enough people will upgrade every couple of years. This allows expanded experiences due to improved hardware.
  • Reply 68 of 197
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by milkmage View Post


    most TV's have glossy screens. I was limited to 2 brands when I was shopping for mine last year.



    I found zero plasma's with a matte screen. only Sony and Samsung make matte (LED/LCD @52";)



    Wow! I haven't looked at TVs in stores for a while. Seems I'll have to stick with my 37" matte LG HDTV forever, if this is the trend.
  • Reply 69 of 197
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by xsu View Post


    At what profit margin?



    Find me an HDTV from any manufacturer, and Apple could sell the same size TV for at least $100-200 more. It's called brand loyalty, and providing value for the money spent (better UI, more content, better integration with iDevices, better aesthetic design, etc). Of course, the haters and nay-sayers will merely point at the screen size and compare it to Vizio, thereby calling the Apple product needlessly overpriced. So be it.
  • Reply 70 of 197
    a_ka_k Posts: 32member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by GregAlexander View Post


    Apple may have no choice.



    Agreed. They don't have a choice. In 15 years Apple will even make refrigerators.

    Do you guys remember that interview with Steve Jobs and Bill Gates in 2007?

    Steve said that "there will be a computer in everything" in the future. In every devices.

    So if that will be the case, then Apple has all the reasons in the world to build them.
  • Reply 71 of 197
    boeyc15boeyc15 Posts: 986member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by trip1ex View Post


    Don't see the point. The ATV is cheap and tiny enough to hide in an hdtv setup or at least not stand out.



    The hdtv market is low margin.



    What can Apple really add to a tv setup that the ATV doesn't or the hdtv manufacturers do not?



    Aluminum frame? Tiny aluminum remote with too few buttons?



    If Apple makes a TV then they've jumped the shark.



    IMO - I agree, I don't see it, but Im not the CEO of Apple either.



    Just some counter thoughts of things they could do...
    • Super duper cinema display. Use that fancy thunderbolt interface to display some extremely high def games or something. Alternate reality distortion field, er.. screen.

    • Theres talk of the next level beyond 1080p... thats way out there though.

    • Perhaps lending their name/design influance to LG etc and take a small cut. But that would just be window dressing stuff... hasn't been their style lately.

    Otherwise Im with the doggle crowd... Just hook up an ATV... do not build into the set.
  • Reply 72 of 197
    jacksonsjacksons Posts: 244member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Unicron View Post


    Is it going to be LED LCD or Plasma?



    If it's not plasma count me out.
  • Reply 73 of 197
    AppleTV as we know it today is merely a stop-gap before the full HDTV. Apple is a "consumer electronics company" nowadays, they said it themselves. The release of the full-size AppleTV is when it shifts from "hobby" to "major device segment" along with iPads, iPhones, and macs.
  • Reply 74 of 197
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Gatorguy View Post


    With high-end 50" HDTV's, including embedded webapps and internet connectivity, advertised for $1200-$1400 nearly every weekend, $2000 for an Apple-branded TV would be a really tough sell IMHO. Having a hi-profile fail would reflect on Apple's other upcoming products more poorly than than some comparatively insignificant addition to the bottom line would benefit them. Personally I don't see a great upside to it.





    You sound like that genius Steve Ballmer when the Iphone came out. "who is going to buy a $650 phone"
  • Reply 75 of 197
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Ireland View Post


    5 remotes (even a universal remote), clunky interfaces, way to much crap wires and boxes, poor design in general, complex setup and UI, complicated remotes, no content built-in. Etc. Etc. The TV business is in as bad shape as phones were before Apple came along. Not to mention, Apple as well as anyone knows if they don't do this someone else will come along and do it instead if them. And eat their lunch in the process.



    Steve Jobs isn?t the second coming of RoboChrist. Apple can?t just walk in and make a market work. They didn?t do it with the first AppleTV (even though it was likely the best selling and most profitable wireless media appliance) or their HiFi.



    YOU HAVE TO HAVE A SOLID PLAN GOING IN which is something I?ve seen no one make a well rounded prediction on. The iPhone was a natural fit. The PMP market was plateauing. We didn?t know if Apple could make it work or to what extend they?d invest in the idea, but we knew that it was inevitable.



    With an HDTV there are too many holes and too many people unwilling to look at the big picture. For instance, if the point of the an Apple made HDTV is to reduce the number of remote controls down to one then it?s failed as stated since it only integrates the AppleTV and HDTV. You still need your DVR and/or cable/sat box with its controller. For many with these devices the TV has long since become a dumb monitor, not something you need to fiddle with often. You can turn it on and off from your DVR or cable/sat remote just from the power-passthrough on that appliance.



    So would it have a cable card built in to accommodate this with ports for some peripherals and storage off the HDTV using Thunderbolt? If that is the case then why wouldn?t Apple offer a cable card option on their AppleTV so the TV can continue to be a dumb terminal, so the price can still be low and achievable while still being profitable, and so they can market it to anyone and everyone who already has a TV, not a huge, multi-thousand dollar device with low margins that has to replace your existing TV. You said the TV business is hurting, but they hurting because they can?t get people to replace TVs often, not because they can.



    And then what happens to the internal AppleTV hardware when they release an SDK and App Store. Your AppleTV apps running on the A4 are no longer as good as running on the A5 next year or A6 the following year. Or how about the A8 and we?re still not ready for a new multi-thousand dollar purchase just to be able to play the latest games on your TV.



    Now consider this. Apple instead decided to update their AppleTV each year or so with the newest processor, alongside an SDK and App Store so they 1) get you to buy a new AppleTV every year or two, and 2) get you buy games and apps. They now have an ecosystem extension that helps lock in future buyers that have used their iOS-based iDevices. They can finally release the FaceTime protocol that will put camera in any vendor?s TVs, and they can eventually get Thunderbolt as the connection for the future TVs that will allow data video to be transmitted at once over a single wire.



    If we really look at Apple?s focus it?s not the multi-thousand dollar Mac Pro or the multi-thousand dollar Xserve. It?s the cheaper items they excel at making that people love to buy and use and that are make up the majority of their revenue of their profits.



    The problem is fixing the way we get channels to our TV, but thinking the monitor you look at is the problem simply because it?s what you look at it is not fixing the problem, it?s adding to it. Even in this thread there is mention of plasma, LCD, 47, 50?, 52?, 45?, 65?, et al. There are just too many options that appeal to different needs. With the iPhone it would be nice if it had a larger display, but TVs aren?t bought that way. Oh, and I need a 20? for my den and a 32? for my guest bedroom, and 14? for my bathroom. can you see Apple offering 18 SKUs the way they do for the iPad? I can?t when all those iPads fill up a 20th of the space used by one TV.
  • Reply 76 of 197
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by zindako View Post


    Has to be the worst article in a while, Apple will never make a television set.



    Maybe you're being sarcastic and I just don't get it but... I ask why not? They've done it before... the Macintosh TV back in 1995.
  • Reply 77 of 197
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    The problem is fixing the way we get channels to our TV, but thinking the monitor you look at is the problem simply because it?s what you look at it is not fixing the problem, it?s adding to it.



    You are absolutely right, however you're missing the point. AppleTV doesn't exit "hobby" stage UNTIL they have the content deals in place. Then it's gametime. And yes, they will absolutely build an HDTV.
  • Reply 78 of 197
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleStud View Post


    You are absolutely right, however you're missing the point. AppleTV doesn't exit "hobby" stage UNTIL they have the content deals in place. Then it's gametime. And yes, they will absolutely build an HDTV.



    That’s at least something new besides “Apple will make a TV and it’ll be the most awesomest thing ever”-like comments, but fails to address 1) how this will happen, 2) how you would then access cable/sat and/or DVR or if these are now non-entities moving forward, and 3) why do these deals have to be added to an HDTV and can’t be added to a much cheaper AppleTV that Apple can update annually and be usable on their current TVs?



    PS: I’m not in any way against Apple making a TV what I’m against is desire getting in the way of any logical or rational reasons as to why Apple would make a TV. Not liking some other brand name for electronics in your HEC is a not valid reason! Thinking Apple can do anything because they are Apple is not a valid reason! Thinking that it would impress your friends is not a valid reason!
  • Reply 79 of 197
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by hiker275 View Post


    ...but... I ask why not? They've done it before... the Macintosh TV back in 1995.



    That isn’t the best argument to make.
  • Reply 80 of 197
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by samwell View Post


    Where's Ireland?



    With Carmen San Diego.
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