Piper Jaffray abandons hope for full-fledged Apple television, remains bullish on AAPL stock
Longtime Apple television proponent Gene Munster threw in the towel on Tuesday, telling investors that he no longer believes the company has a big-screen set in the works, based on the latest rumors.
This week, rumors began to surface that Apple abandoned plans for a television set more than a year ago. The news follows a lengthy period with a lack of buzz surrounding the possibility of an Apple television.
That was apparently enough for Munster to abandon hope, issuing a note to investors on Tuesday entitled "Facing the Reality of No Apple Television." In it, he admits that his high hopes for an Apple-built TV set were "wrong," and he no longer expects that such a device will launch.
But in spite of the long-standing rumors, the news will not likely have an effect on Apple's stock price, the analyst said in his note, a copy of which was provided to AppleInsider.
"Given that overall investor expectations for a television were low and Street estimates did not reflect a television, we believe there will be no sustained impact to shares of AAPL," Munster wrote.
The Piper Jaffray analyst has been calling for Apple to release a connected HDTV since 2009. His continued support of the mythical television set made him something of a poster boy for ongoing rumors and speculation that never actually came to fruition.
But those dreams are now dead, even Munster himself has conceded. He now expects that the company will instead continue to develop and improve the Apple TV streaming set-top box, which is heavily expected to be refreshed at next month's Worldwide Developers Conference.
Specifically, it's been said that the new Apple TV will sport an App Store for third-party software, Siri voice control, and the same A8 processor found in the latest iPhones.
This approach, Munster said, will allow Apple to avoid the highly competitive, low-margin television business, and instead focus on what he called "the real future of the living room."
"Envisioning the next 10 years, it seems less likely that the television will be the centerpiece of the living room with the evolution of virtual reality and augmented reality," he said. "We believe Apple is actively working on early virtual and augmented reality products, although we may be 5+ years away from seeing these products launched."
Piper Jaffray has maintained its "overweight" rating for AAPL stock, with a price target of $162.
This week, rumors began to surface that Apple abandoned plans for a television set more than a year ago. The news follows a lengthy period with a lack of buzz surrounding the possibility of an Apple television.
That was apparently enough for Munster to abandon hope, issuing a note to investors on Tuesday entitled "Facing the Reality of No Apple Television." In it, he admits that his high hopes for an Apple-built TV set were "wrong," and he no longer expects that such a device will launch.
But in spite of the long-standing rumors, the news will not likely have an effect on Apple's stock price, the analyst said in his note, a copy of which was provided to AppleInsider.
"Given that overall investor expectations for a television were low and Street estimates did not reflect a television, we believe there will be no sustained impact to shares of AAPL," Munster wrote.
The Piper Jaffray analyst has been calling for Apple to release a connected HDTV since 2009. His continued support of the mythical television set made him something of a poster boy for ongoing rumors and speculation that never actually came to fruition.
But those dreams are now dead, even Munster himself has conceded. He now expects that the company will instead continue to develop and improve the Apple TV streaming set-top box, which is heavily expected to be refreshed at next month's Worldwide Developers Conference.
Specifically, it's been said that the new Apple TV will sport an App Store for third-party software, Siri voice control, and the same A8 processor found in the latest iPhones.
This approach, Munster said, will allow Apple to avoid the highly competitive, low-margin television business, and instead focus on what he called "the real future of the living room."
"Envisioning the next 10 years, it seems less likely that the television will be the centerpiece of the living room with the evolution of virtual reality and augmented reality," he said. "We believe Apple is actively working on early virtual and augmented reality products, although we may be 5+ years away from seeing these products launched."
Piper Jaffray has maintained its "overweight" rating for AAPL stock, with a price target of $162.
Comments
So is he firing himself for the colossal failure? Shouldn't there be some kind of negative consequences for being this wrong this long?
It's okay Gene, you can buy a MacTV.
Or a Retina iMac, that's like a small TV.
So?
I'm surprised he didn't squeeze another few years out of the rumour because according to his estimates Apple would have been working on a TV for 6 years now.
Let's look at this properly:
• TVs are commodity items, i.e. razor thin margins with no meaningful differentiation.
• TVs are long term durable goods, in hardware Apple exists in the short to medium length markets only.
• TVs are going dark as the new generation absorb media on personal screens.
• LG & Samsung have shat the bed for Smart TVs. Consumer expectation of using bundled "smart" features are low, because the inclusions have sucked and still suck.
The only meaningful information being released here is that Gene Munster invented his "sources" and never actually did any "supply chain checks."
Then again, we don't need PipJ or GMun to confirm to us what we already know: Analysts are full of crap.
So is he firing himself for the colossal failure? Shouldn't there be some kind of negative consequences for being this wrong this long?
according to some, it should have been released a couple years ago. Even back then it made ZERO sense to me. Why would Apple do such a thing? The TV Market has slim profits. They're big, bulky and heavy to stock in Apple stores. Who's going to dump their HDTV for a Apple HDTV? Buying a small, much cheaper BOX that works on ALL HDTV's makes far, far, far better sense and you can do everything on that as yo could if it was built in anyway. Plus people can hold onto their HDTV for 10+ years, some some built in Box at that point would be pretty sad and no longer supported, which is why Smart TV's in general are just dumb. Velcro your AppleTV to the back of any HDTV, Look It's now a SmartTV that's Upgradable!!!!
For everyone who thinks Munster was obviously wrong on the TV, but has totally jumped on the Apple car bandwagon, this is your first irony alert. (You will not receive another.)
There are way too many choices and options for TVs already, and Apple couldn't differentiate enough to charge a premium for such an item. It would have required a complete shift in company direction for a TV to fit into the works. By having a set top box that can easily attach to ANY TV, Apple can now get saturation quickly and sell profitable CONTENT instead of barely profitable hardware.
All I hope for in an Apple TV in the future would be 2 things.
1. The ability for the AppleTV to turn on my existing TV somehow and set the input on the TV to the AppleTV. Then I only need one remote.
2. The ability to watch live TV. This could be done via an integrated tuner (unlikely) or via streaming. Streaming could be a service provided by Apple or, even better, once apps are available, the ability to access a HD HomeRun tuner. Once that happens, I'll never access the interface of my TV again.
Expect a Set-up box and a super think 65" display.
There are way too many choices and options for TVs already, and Apple couldn't differentiate enough to charge a premium for such an item. It would have required a complete shift in company direction for a TV to fit into the works. By having a set top box that can easily attach to ANY TV, Apple can now get saturation quickly and sell profitable CONTENT instead of barely profitable hardware.
All I hope for in an Apple TV in the future would be 2 things.
1. The ability for the AppleTV to turn on my existing TV somehow and set the input on the TV to the AppleTV. Then I only need one remote.
2. The ability to watch live TV. This could be done via an integrated tuner (unlikely) or via streaming. Streaming could be a service provided by Apple or, even better, once apps are available, the ability to access a HD HomeRun tuner. Once that happens, I'll never access the interface of my TV again.
1 should be possible with CEC.
So is he firing himself for the colossal failure? Shouldn't there be some kind of negative consequences for being this wrong this long?
Hey give the guy a break. Its not like he invaded Iraq or something.
There has never been a statue erected to honour an analyst.