Jon writes, “I predict that Apple TV will actually become a TV.”
Jon writes, “”We recently got a new iMac and started experiencing the wonders of FrontRow. Within a couple of days our DVD player died from jealousy… What a joy to navigate with that wonderful little remote!”
“Apple has revolutionized the cell phone business in the last six months because it has changed the way that people interact with their cell phone. I think they will do the same with TV. Just imagine a TV that you not only navigate with a simple remote but also that you can program like a computer. That is you can reorger your channels and organize them into favorites lists,” Jon writes. “Have user specific lists, download movie rentals and all this [with the beauty of Jonathan Ives design].”
Full article here.
I am in the market for a new TV. I would definately consider an Apple product. What can’t Apple do?
This has been an on and off prediction for a couple years, I for one hope it does come true.
The problem is that they have to add a tuner, possibly accomodate HD and non HD broadcasting, they would have to have a remote with more buttons on it and they’d have to make versions for different countries as we all use different standards. If they don’t allow it to actually replace a TV then it’s just a Mac with a screen and even with something like EyeTV plugged in I would still prefer a proper TV.
I think AppleTV will actually become an apple….
WOW, what a concept. A TV where I can put the channels where I want them to be.
That would be so cool to scroll through my favorite channels at my leisure and ignore the ones I never watch
NOT!
What a silly idea. Apple is looking to gain market share. If Apple TV persists as an ad-on device, folks who already have a TV will buy it. If Apple started making a TV, they would be waiting for upgrade cycles to sell them. You are just not going to sell millions of a device like that.
Apple could sell millions of the DVD player of the future. And they will.
inevitable. and of course it will run OSX and support games.
…and then…why buy a separate gaming system if your TV already has it built in?
It’s a floor wax AND a desert topping. It’s delicious! And just look at that shine!
I predict that ATVs will continue to be all-terrain vehicles.
Except that all the cable companies / satellite companies / verizon fios TV render much of those features useless. As much as I’d like to see cablecard adoption, it just isn’t viable because of the TV companies. I have some great features on my current TV, but unfortunately only use channel 3.
will apple ever confuse the customers with their product line?
NO!
Hence nope. Never!
I’d say, sony would be wanting to chip into the AppleTV, by allowing it to fit nicely with their products.. much like the recent article about Sony ditching their walkman for the iPod for their stereo systems.
While I would love to see Apple tackle this, it’s hardly a new concept. HP has already released such a device and of course it runs Windows Media Center.
See my prediction here:
http://www.macobserver.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=61316
Made it on January 8.
Cheers,
MacB
What about Apple TV (iMac-like hard disc, turner, DVD box) as the dumb terminal ‘dock’ for the ultra-slim Apple notebook?
One functions as a stand-alone TV, the other as a stand alone laptop… together as a well-speced full-size desktop.
Hmmmm.
Ampar: thanks for the blast from the past!
New Shimmer!
the phone isn’t a new concept, just that iPhone did it right….Apple will do the TV right, and of course we’ll have a “Touch” based remote. If not in 2008, then definitely in 2009
Why did I think of that dock patent from the cocktail napkin when reading this ?
the remote will be an ipod touch!
I hope not. Apple is about enabling peoples creativity and enriching their lives with new possibilities. All Apple’s products are active in this regard, including the ipod as music is not a passive entity, it makes you feel more alive. Television is the complete opposite of this philosophy as it’s almost entirely passive. You have more brain activity watching paint dry than you do watching television. Television sucks, it’s robbing us of our time, our critical faculties and our motivation.
To macaholic: It’s a shame SNL isn’t as good as it once was.
This definitely isn’t as far-fetched (or as wrong) as some of us here make it seem. Apple already knows how to make good displays. This new TV could be a HD monitor (i.e. no TV tuner), since there is almost no one in the US who gets their HD (or even SD) programming through the air. Since we all use some kind of cable (or dish), we are already getting composite, component or HDMI signal out of that cable box.
What Apple would have to do with cable TV (dish TV) is exactly the same it did for mobile telephony: break the level of control operators now have over the look & feel and services they offer. As iCouchPotato said, many TVs out there have extensive features, but all they do today is show channel 3, and we are chained to our cable box and whatever features our cable operator has shoved down our throat. If Apple were to find a way to break this (by promising operators greater revenue through some other means, just like with the iPhone and AT&T;), we, the consumers, could be liberated from these dreadful monopolists and finally be able to use the (expensive) hardware that we buy.
As for the possible features of such an AppleTV, we’ll have to wait and see them in that future announcement.
a main thrust of AppleTV will be gaming….too late to catch up to Playstation/Xbox/Wii …however these all rely on TV…
if Apple builds a gaming experience directly into the TV *and* supports these other gaming systems…they will kick the another industry’s &^% yet again. ya know embrace and….
Why does this Apple TV set idiocy keep resurfacing?
It’s on par with Apple should sell Windows boxes.
Or…
OR…
Apple would have little to gain unless they blew the TV concept apart and did something startlingly different.
TV sets are a commodity just as Windows boxes are a commodity. There are good ones, a few excellent ones and a lot of bad ones. But essentially they’re all the same.
AWidgetIHaveNot is dead on. TV is for sedentary, passive and mindless absorption, the antithesis of Apple.
Ampar… SNL was NEVER as good as it used to be.
Q: What’s the longest 5 minutes of your life?
A: Watching an SNL sketch.
This has only been predicted a hundred times or so before this article. But if he’d like to take credit, so be it.
“and we are chained to our cable box and whatever features our cable operator has shoved down our throat.”
Apparently you have Cox cable……