Apple expected to launch 3 HDTV models by March 2012 - report

Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited January 2014
Apple will likely launch a new high-definition television set in March 2012 with three screen sizes and price points, one Wall Street analyst claims.



Trip Chowdhry with Global Equities Research issued a note to investors on Sunday in which he shared his "converged view" on an anticipated Apple HDTV, with information based on details culled from a number of developer events he attended.



Chowdhry said the product that is most similar to Apple's rumored HDTV is the Bose VideoWave, a 46-inch LCD HDTV with an integrated surround-sound speaker system. The VideoWave aims to simplify HDTVs by reducing clutter, and to improve picture and sound quality.



The Bose VideoWave gives the greatest sense of where Apple's alleged HDTV may be heading, Chowdhry claimed. He said his "converged view" of data from various developers is "probably" 75 percent accurate, and that it will "probably" be launched in March of 2012, with developer sessions at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June.



Apple's rumored HDTV is apparently being benchmarked against the VideoWave because it has reduced its number of cables to just three. Chowdhry believes that any television set from Apple would have just one cable.



The VideoWave also sports a thickness of six inches, packing in 16 speakers. Chowdhry said that Apple's purported HDTV will be a third as thick and will also have 16 speakers.



"These 16 built-in speakers gives a complete surround sound experience, without the need for any external speakers," he said.







Bose's HDTV product comes in just one screen size and price point: 46 inches for $5,200. Chowdhry said that an HDTV from Apple will have three screen sizes and three price points.



"The DSP chip in Apple HDTV is a brand new chip based on Apple's acquisition of PA Semi," he added. "As of now, this new chip is not in mass production."



Claims of a forthcoming Apple-branded Internet-connected HDTV are not new, and one report from April even suggested that Apple could release its own television set this year. One analysis issued earlier this month found that Apple's market capitalization could grow by $100 billion if it were to enter the HDTV market.
«134567

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 140
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    Hang on, let me go refill my 64oz water bottle so I have something to spit out everywhere as I reread this.



    THREE models? Three.



    Whenabouts would we be seeing Apple's absolutely massive LCD order (in three sizes, no less) in time for manufacturing and shipping of this product for a March release?



    Quote:

    Bose's HDTV product comes in just one screen size and price point: 46 inches for $5,200. Chowdhry said that an HDTV from Apple will have three screen sizes and three price points.



    Yeah, 36" for $5,200, 46" for $6,200, and 56" for $7,200.
  • Reply 2 of 140
    I don't know about these price points. The HDTV market has quickly raced to the bottom, with expensive models and larger screens being more niche products. Plus, the larger the screen, the more quality is an issue. Apple would have to embrace 1080p content. They're all about higher quality screens on Mac and iOS devices, but on AppleTV, they're still stuck in the 720p era.



    I'd love to see what Apple has in mind for future TVs, but I'm skeptical.
  • Reply 3 of 140
    addaboxaddabox Posts: 12,665member
    Hi, I have some baseless speculation about a rumored Apple product.



    Not convinced? Allow me to add some utterly made numbers: 3 models, 2" thick, 16 speakers. Can't argue with numbers.



    Wait, still not buying it? OK, how about this: my information is likely 75% accurate. Meaning of the four people I ran this by, only one of them was actually drunk at the time.
  • Reply 4 of 140
    sofabuttsofabutt Posts: 99member
    What a bunch of crap... Like Apple is going to jump right in the middle of HDTVs and offer THREE models all at the same time. Apple's offerings in their computer and phone divisions are limited to 1 or 2, with slight customization. They are not going to suddenly offer 3 models in a market they have never appeared in before.



    This rumor of Apple entering the TV arena has been kicked around for years. It might one day become a reality, but for now it is just a means for some know-nothing analyst to make a name for himself.
  • Reply 5 of 140
    realisticrealistic Posts: 1,154member
    This is all nothing but a Scientific Wild As*ed Guess!
  • Reply 6 of 140
    sockrolidsockrolid Posts: 2,789member
    Apple would never want to release any app-capable iOS device until developers have had time to build apps for it. That means *after* WWDC, which will happen next summer.



    Pure link-bait. Global Equities Research is getting their page hits now, but they'll lose credibility when March has passed without three Apple HDTV sets with 16 speakers.



    I'm 75% sure of it.
  • Reply 7 of 140
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member
    Rumor followed by skeptical, sarcastic responses. See above. This reminds me of something... wait a minute... wait a minute... There was this rumor in 2006 about an "i" thing that everybody was laughing at Apple about. Something about a mature, commoditized, cutthroat market that would eat Apple alive? Well, they're not laughing any more are they. And why did Apple remove "Computer" from its corporate name? Let me think about that one again.
  • Reply 8 of 140
    bloggerblogbloggerblog Posts: 2,462member
    I can see most people are being skeptical however, this might very well be the only way Apple can mass market their Apple TV and sell/rent movies through iTunes.



    Apple is selling lots of Apple TVs, but TV manufacturers are already pre-installing NetFlix and Google TVs into their products making the Apple TV a harder sell even-though ATV has higher quality interface and content.



    So if Apple sticks an ATV into say an LG, and calls it Apple TV 52" they'll make money off of iTunes, the TV, and ATV. Moreover, SJ will be able to "stick it" to Google.
  • Reply 9 of 140
    kotatsukotatsu Posts: 1,010member
    Premium HDTVs don't sell, I know, I have a Pioneer KURO which cost a small fortune and is still far and away the best HDTV ever made... but few people bought them.



    Could Apple really hope to compete with the likes of Samsung and Panasonic? The only unique selling point would be iTunes store stuff, which isn't exactly enough to convince people to buy the Apple TV. Plus Samsung and the like already offer fully connected TVs with access to several streaming services, few of which, one would imagine, Apple would support.
  • Reply 10 of 140
    Keep in mind, Trip is the same guy who said Ballmer would get 7 minutes at WWDC 2010.



    Ignore.
  • Reply 11 of 140
    jetlawjetlaw Posts: 156member
    This rumor makes no sense to me at all. Why would Apple want to involve itself in an industry that is in a perpetual race to the bottom with little no profit margin. I fail to see how this would benefit the Apple ecosystem. It is only slightly more relevant than an "iBlender."
  • Reply 12 of 140
    sheffsheff Posts: 1,407member
    I would love a TV from apple. Not for 5 grand of course, but under a thousand would be nice. It would have apple TV built in, and an ability to record live TV. Of course Netflix, Hulu etc as well. This type of TV would be insane,



    Of course Google has already tried this and fialed like a miserable failure. However I would not buy an HDTV for 1,000 if the only thing it does is replicate a $99 device's functionality on a TV I can buy for $500. That product would be DOA.
  • Reply 13 of 140
    galbigalbi Posts: 968member
    Not a good move by Apple.



    Dont want to walk into a minefield of patents held by Samsung in this field.
  • Reply 14 of 140
    esoomesoom Posts: 155member
    If Apple used it's fabled supply chain manipulation, it could come up with a reasonably priced HDTV, however, in the cutthroat industry, the profit margins are too slim for Apple.



    The only reason I even look at these rumors is that Jobs is reported to hate boxes connecting to TV's, but any TV connected to cable TV will be cluttered with a zillion wires and the cable industry will never change, they make too much money with their old crap & DRM.



    Now a Nano sized BT enabled watch that acted as a second display for my phone.....
  • Reply 15 of 140
    irnchrizirnchriz Posts: 1,616member
    This guy is talking out of his arse. I hope that he gets fired in March 2012 when his bullshit predictions turn out to be false.
  • Reply 16 of 140
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by irnchriz View Post


    This guy is talking out of his arse. I hope that he gets fired in March 2012 when his bullshit predictions turn out to be false.



    If every analyst got (rightly) fired when their predictions are shown to be wrong, we'd have no analysts left.



    Instead they get paid more.
  • Reply 17 of 140
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jetlaw View Post


    This rumor makes no sense to me at all. Why would Apple want to involve itself in an industry that is in a perpetual race to the bottom with little no profit margin. I fail to see how this would benefit the Apple ecosystem. It is only slightly more relevant than an "iBlender."



    Well, before Apple did the comeback, computers was all about a race to the bottom. So was mobile phones. So that is not what bothers me. I think those guys in Cupertino may want to kick ass in other such industries.



    But why TV?



    What's the rationale? I may be almost blind, but please - why?



    To serve a extrodernary living room experience there is so much more than the screen and what's on it. You need great speakers and great receiver/amplifier and all of those are well served from low price to the most expensive already.



    Indeed, usability can be improved. A lot. And Apple can do that. But I think improving ATV is a better choice. Together with home server stuff. And they can also work hard on spreading all types of contents to all countries where iTunes exist. Not to mention actually selling the ATV2 outside US. Then people can stick it to a TV (or many TVs) and home cinemas of their own choice and fashion back home. Or in the office.



    My 100 percent sure thinking and I do not need to invent sources to tell it. Or pretend I got it from somewhere else.
  • Reply 18 of 140
    scotty321scotty321 Posts: 313member
    This rumor is complete hogwash from an analyst who has never accurately predicted anything about Apple in the past.



    The con-artist analyst who came up with this rumor SPECIFICALLY invented it to drive up the value of his firm's investment in Apple shares.



    It's so incredibly obvious what is going on here, yet AppleInsider and other websites publish this guy's ramblings as if it were news.



    I wish AppleInsider would ban the publishing of unfounded rumors like this one.
  • Reply 19 of 140
    jawportajawporta Posts: 140member
    Let me guess, the TV will only work with iTunes and Netflix. You can only run it off the internet which will cause the cable companies to raise their prices to $120 a month. Basically we'll be paying double for the same shitty content we could get for free with a HD antenna.



    Fuck all these greedy fucking companies. TV sucks anyway.
  • Reply 20 of 140
    anantksundaramanantksundaram Posts: 20,403member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by lkrupp View Post


    Rumor followed by skeptical, sarcastic responses. See above. This reminds me of something... wait a minute... wait a minute... There was this rumor in 2006 about an "i" thing that everybody was laughing at Apple about. Something about a mature, commoditized, cutthroat market that would eat Apple alive? Well, they're not laughing any more are they. And why did Apple remove "Computer" from its corporate name? Let me think about that one again.



    You're exactly right.



    People will point and laugh (as with most of the posts here) for the next few months as rumors intensify.



    But Apple creating a TV that blows tbe current products out of the water is pretty much a given. I have no doubt that we'll have the last laugh!
Sign In or Register to comment.