“Television prices have fallen so much that a typical set will soon cost less than an Apple Inc. iPad that’s less than a tenth the size,” Takashi Amano, Mariko Yasu and Minh Bui report for Bloomberg.
“Average prices of 42-inch liquid-crystal-display TVs in the U.S. will probably fall 10 percent to $599 this quarter from a year earlier, and slip to $578 by the end of the year, according to Santa Clara, California-based research firm DisplaySearch,” Amano, Yasu and Bui report. “iPad tablet computers are sold for $499 to $829 in the U.S., with Apple offering the Wi-Fi only, 32-gigabyte version for $599.”
Amano, Yasu and Bui report, “The price drop illustrates why none of the industry’s five- largest producers, including Samsung Electronics Co. and Sony Corp., have managed to generate even a nickel of profit for every dollar in sales from their TV divisions since last year… Apple, whose co-founder Steve Jobs resigned last week as chief executive officer, has kept iPad prices unchanged since it introduced the first model in January 2010.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Yeah, but, versus any random Apple-branded product, what about the price of ping pong balls in China?
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “N8nNC” for the heads up.]
MDN Take — exactly!
On another note, a pound of diamonds is now inexplicably worth more than a pound of bricks. How long can this discrepancy last?
Make that a million pounds of bricks and you’ll be a little closer. 🙂
@disposable identity
Good one!
@replay
You totally missed the humor!
I always enjoy stupid comparisons.
Comparing the prices of iPads and TVs is like …
These stories are getting tired .
Keep in mind that it’s August, the month when tech journalists phone it on from the beach, and it shows. 😉
This is the reason why unless there is some groundbreaking new TV design/experience Apple won’t release a TV.
That being said – have you seen a typical TV remote or in most cases the horrible interfaces of most TV’s? The blinking 12:00 syndrome is still alive but just surfaced in different ways.
Yes. I bought a Vizio Blue-Ray player AND a Vizio TV. Both came with remotes with a million buttons. But, even after looking over the user manuals (thank you Apple for showing that hi-tech products don’t need manuals if you make them right), I still can’t figure out how to use the myriad buttons on either to control both devices and eliminate the need for both. While I sometimes feel that my Apple TV remote is over simplified (I switch to the remote app on the iPad/iPhone), these over-complicated monstrosities prove that almost no one has figured out Apples magic mantra: “It just works.”
What’s the big deal? Computer monitors have always been higher priced than comparable size TV’s. A 24″ iMac costs more than a 24″ TV. Does anybody smell FUD?
I believe (without reading the full article) that they are trying to say that people are buying iPads and watching videos on them rather than shoveling out money for a TV. This has caused the TV industry to drop prices. Now, if you look at size+capability, it is no wonder why. TV manufacturers have been ripping us off for a decade now with the outrageous prices for a television. At least now they can do more than just display video and play audio. They now have (ooooh) Internet Apps and can link into services such as Hulu+ and NetFlix. I can even play Suduko on my VIzio (not that I’ve done it more than once, the interface was too painful to use).
Until a TV has the power and capability of an iPad, and the user interface of one, the prices will continue to drop. I suspect that this will finally happen, what, next year when Apple releases their own television with AppleTV integrated into it.
“Until a TV has the power and capability of an iPad, and the user interface of one, the prices will continue to drop. I suspect that this will finally happen, what, next year when Apple releases their own television with AppleTV integrated into it.”
Why oh Why would you want to put the Apple TV INSIDE the Tv. When the tv breaks, just get another cheap one. The AppleTV 3 becomes the full control system for the cheap screen…..
Just a thought,
en
More evidence of the post-hardware era. Software is the big thing now.
“iPads soon to cost more than large-screen LCD televisions”
Ok, even this person hates apple or is not english spoken.
Since apple HAS NOT changed it’s prices, the correct way to say tis will be:
“large-screen LCD televisions soon to cost LESS than iPads”
$tupid, ipads are not changing their price, is TV the one changing, so that is the subject.
What nit picking, are you serious ? Its true, iPads will soon cost more than HDTV’s. This doesn’t imply iPads are going up in price, at all. I just means they will cost more than a TV and they will.
Is the glass 1/2 full or 1/2 empty ? Who cares. It means the same thing.
No, it doesnt, because narratives have more at work than just the mechanics of sentence structure. The juxtaposition of what are simply facts can be written to imply a certain value judgement depending on the intent of the writer. He could be praising the TV industry with one arrangement and slagging Apple’s prices with another. Articles aren’t just laundry lists of facts and collections of sentences. Well, good writers anyway…
2012 Apple intros the iPad 70 inch HDTV.
When portability is not needed and home entertainment is. Oh, one more thing: bring your own keyboard, mouse, and sofa.
“2012 Apple intros the iPad 70 inch HDTV.”
Dec 2012… world ends… pigs fly….. I win the Lotto..
Life. weird?? 🙂
en
Why even bother typing this pointless article, or this comment on it to be honest?
Your comment has prompted me to comment and now I’m in an existential crisis. Thanks mxnt41 (if that IS your real name)
J
This always happens with tech. Unit prices go down after manufacturing capacity ramps up and competition forces the prices down.
That why 3D TV is the new thing. Commands better prices and maybe better profits.
At Costcos they are selling 70 inch TVs for 3K. You were paying the same price for a 46 inch 3 years ago. My bet is the money is being made on the high end stuff like that and the $600 models are just bringing in cash for virtually no profit.
Rounding up the point is for how long will iPads remain in the same price given Apple has more margin to play with. But that may depend on competition, witch is lacking. Also, Apple has being playing with this price strategy for a decade.
As I have already said, TVs as we know them today are already dead.
Only a somewhat sophisticated computer will be able to efficiently and user-friendlily (…) aggregate all program sources (internet services, streaming, downloading, airwaves, DVD/BlueRay, etc…). Say an AppleTV or equivalent.
Then all you need is a display and sound system, with proper interfaces: HDMI (or successor), Wifi with AirPlay (or equivalent), etc… Some will be huge 60-inch wall-mounted beasts, some will be small 10-inch hand-held devices, or whatever other incarnation/size.
Unless TV makers suddenly learn how to make a sophisticated computer, they will become display+sound systems suppliers, nothing more, nothing less. Even more of a commodity market than today. As it should be.
And whose fault is it that TV prices continue to drop and yet they make virtually no profit?
Answer: Samsung, Sony, etc. If they would cease this idea that they have to be cheaper than the other guy, and instead focused on value and ease of use to the consumer, then they could charge more. When your entire marketing plan focuses on how thin your TV is and how much less it costs than the other guy, you are going to have problems.
Four years ago I bought a 40″ Sony Bravia for £899, reduced from £1100. Two days ago I bought a Mac Mini, with 1Tb of storage, 4Gb of RAM, a BT keyboard and a Magic Trackpad, for £630. An HDMI cable cost me £7.99 and a TOSLINK from Amazon to link to my A/V system for £5.99. Oh, and a $6 rubber surround for the optical drive so I can use it externally.
Shows how prices can change.
what this says to me is that there is now room for an Apple branded TV that will make a profit.
The value add of the apple brand + Apple’s plug and play set up with a mounting bracket integrated/included at $800 beats the crap out of a non -apple $578 TV + $100 mounting bracket + $200-300 Geek/Techie to set it up = $878 – $978 initial cost.
Food prices have doubled and will likely double again so there will never be an overall saving in this Fashionist Corporate Economy
Why mention the iPad? A large screen tv will cost less than lunch for two at Le Grand Vefour in the Palais Royale, including wine. Make that the headline.
The iPad 2 has has about 85% of the total pixels of a 720p HDTV as well as a precision capacitive touchscreen (which adds quite a bit of cost by itself). It also has many times the processing power of an HDTV. When the iPad 3 comes out, it will likely also have many more pixels than a 1080p HDTV.
Consider also the fact that flat screen HDTVs have had at least a decade to evolve and work their way down the cost curve. I knew a guy who blew over $9000 on a 50″ plasma set about ten years ago. Give the iPad a few more years to evolve and you will see the price/performance ratio continue to improve.
Of course this is a good comparison, big screen HDTV’s used to cost 1000’s of dollars and for some people an HDTV is infinitely better and a better value than an iPad. Not everyone likes tablets but lots of people love their big screen TV’s (who doesn’t??).
I don’t the point is that iPads are expensive, just that TVs are another industry in a race to the bottom. They make almost nothing on each device and hope to make it up in volume. But I could be wrong.
So? I, like most people, will pay what I want for what I want.
Greed is good. Go Apple.