Rumors of an Apple-made TV set are back again
Apple is said to be considering making a television set, over a decade after it abandoned that idea in favor of creating the Apple TV set top box.

An "Apple television" has been rumored for more than 15 years.
It's one of the famous Steve Jobs stories, a claim relayed by biographer Walter Isaacson, which Jobs said he had figured out television. "I finally cracked it," he said in 2010, adding that his Apple TV set would be "completely easy to use."
Now according to Bloomberg, Apple may yet be having another go at fulfilling that ambition. As yet it's no more than a vague rumor, but Apple is said to be once again evaluating the idea.
What's new is that such a device could conceivably fit in with the many other rumors that say Apple wants to expand its home devices. An Apple TV set -- or perhaps an Apple-branded set -- could be one key part of an array of smart home devices Apple is said to be planning for 2025 and beyond.
Assuming that this would be the current tvOS in a somewhat bigger box than the Apple TV 4K, it's both easy to see how Apple could do it -- and hard to see why it would. Apple TV is already available as part of at least most smart television sets, and Apple would presumably need to bring something new to the market if it were to sell many.
It's not as if Apple would try undercutting the price of TV sets, or any other product market it works in. Still, it is quite possible that a TV manufacturer would be willing to partner on such a device, because of the value of Apple's brand name.
But then Apple already makes the hardware that is in the Apple TV 4K, and it already has LG making monitors for it. So again, it is possible that Apple could bring its own TV set to market.
Yet there is a reason that back in the early 2010s,Tim Cook, squashed such reports. Then Apple's Chief Operating Officer, he expressly stated that Apple had "no interest" in the television market.
Even Jobs didn't seem that convinced. Not only did he oversee the switch from a TV set to the Apple TV set top box, but he also had Apple refer to it all as a hobby.
Apple does not publish sales figures for the Apple TV 4K, nor for any other specific device. Yet the latest available figures show that in 2022, the Apple TV+ streaming service had only 3% of the market.
That 3% figure encompasses everyone watching through Apple TV 4K and all of the smart TVs that include the service. So it's not like Apple TV has an encouraging track record -- although at the same time, the figures show why Apple is expanding how many services carry Apple TV+.
Rumor Score: Possible
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Comments
Even without my current abject hatred of everything Apple, I don't think I would ever purchase a TV from them. I want a good TV with great picture quality. That's about it... A TV that does not have a gazillion bugs which don't get fixed in favor of new "features" which won't even work on my TV because Apple just changed to a new hardware platform and abandoned the old platform in a hot second... and I certainly don't want a minimalist TV with the power button on the bottom of the stand, wifi only with no external ports (for that clean and uncluttered look), and a single button remote without user replaceable batteries which promptly gets obsoleted without the ability to purchase a replacement when the original battery dies. The AppleTV as a set-top box is fine. If it fails or gets thrown to Apple's proverbial technological garbage heap, I can get a new one for a relatively small sum, or go with a different platform altogether.
/End_Rant
If an LG TV sells for $999 with 5% ($50) net margin, Apple could sell the exact same panel (they buy panels from LG/Samsung) for $1299 to get 25% net margin.
Quite a lot of people would pay $1299 for an Apple TV instead of a $999 LG TV. They won't take a huge marketshare but it's a reasonably sized market at over 200m units per year:
https://advanced-television.com/2022/02/22/samsung-lg-dominate-global-tv-market/
The biggest manufacturers (LG, Samsung) have around 10-20% unit share. If Apple aims for 10m units/year (5% yearly marketshare), they'd make $13b revenue, $3b net income.
They can ship the TV with A18 Pro or M2/3/4 chips so it can play iOS games.
While 10m units/year doesn't sound like a lot, the worldwide market is over 1.5b units so if they can sustain the sales, they would be able to build up a decent install base within a few years.
If they go all-in with dual layer OLED panels, they can rival the image quality of competing units around the same price point and they will have the best chassis design, as thin as possible with a solid metal enclosure and ports all neatly lined up, intuitive remote control and UI, support for connecting/streaming from iOS devices seamlessly.
This rumor is complete steaming pile, a genuine Munsterism.
Aahahahahahahahahaha!!!
I help my friends and neighbours set up their new TVs, and I'm always APPALLED at how many ads are cluttering up the menu -- every menu -- all the time. I generally help them set their TVs to default to the last channel they were watching so that they don't have to use the menus unless they want to use one of the streaming services (my neighbours are mostly seniors, so they don't have as much interest in commercial-free television as I do).
I don't have cable. I rotate around 3-5 streaming services at a time, and pay for the ad-free tiers, which is very reasonably priced when you're not also paying a cable bill (which I'm not). I have limited time to watch TV, and I want to watch high-quality shows without interruption. The Apple TV box makes this possible, so it is for me as indispensable as electricity when it comes to TV watching.
In my family, there are several smart TVs that can't get the Paramount+ app for example. And none of the TVs have a particularly good way of integrating broadcast OTA (Over the Air) sources for local channels into the smart menu OS. It's not terribly difficult for me to figure it out (you just navigate the menu to switch inputs), but this is still too much for certain family members to deal with. (OTA may sound old-fashioned to some, but it is certainly ubiquitous).
Speaking of local channels, this is where cable or satellite TV often come in. If you have Spectrum, you can install their app on either a Roku device or Apple TV (I have one of each on different TVs). It's a little better than having a separate cable box since you don't have to switch inputs on the TV itself. On the Roku device, its not possible to have the Spectrum app automatically launch when you turn on the TV, but I got the Apple TV from Spectrum along with the Spectrum Apple TV remote that does make the Spectrum app launch on start up if you hit the right button.
Now that Spectrum (and Comcast) offer the Xumo streaming box, it looks like local/linear TV and streaming TV (still not OTA) might be a bit better integrated. Same thing with the DirecTV Gemini box. I don't have these, but I know someone that has a Xumo and while they are not too impressed, at least the remote has a number keypad.
What's still missing is a device that does not need to be associated with a cable TV or satellite TV service so that one can access local OTA channels and has an App Store to install whatever streaming apps one wishes.
I would say the chance of a TV with an Apple logo on it is slim, but not zero. There would have to be a clear benefit to do so compared to just connecting an Apple TV. Maybe Apple should come out with a TV with an OTA tuner integrated with Apple TV OS? There would then be the bonus of having an all in one solution to watch regular TV and streaming TV, play games, have HomePod integration, and be a HomeKit hub too. In my mind, a TV with these capabilities should cost about as much as a separate Apple TV device combined with a nice TV like an LG 65" OLED. People say that Apple is not interested in the low-margin TV business, but it's not like the Apple TV is such a high margin device, so who knows? If not a TV, then maybe an Apple TV soundbar?
Lots of things that make a large screen useful that aren't for passively watching TV and for which Apple would need to have a hardware entry.
Indeed I too was contemplating VisionPro and spatial image viewing support as something unique to Apple...
Apple shouldn’t waste time trying to compete with essentially disposable commodity items from dozens of manufacturers.
What’s next, a “smart” microwave?
I’d say Apple should try to make Apple TV 4K work a little better with dumb monitors and speakers, even with standard TVs.
It’s a little more complicated to use than my living room system, since I have to separately control the speakers.
My living room system is an LG UHDTV and KEF wireless speakers and subwoofers.
So, make Apple TV 4K work better with a wider variety of peripherals and be a bit more flexible.
How about an Apple TV Max (or something) that acts more like a media hub connecting audio/video devices and peripherals and making them work better together.