“I doubt Apple will chase the big flat-screen market dominated by the likes of Samsung and LG. Those sets are already Cupertino-thin and entrenched,” Ben Kunz writes for Businessweek. “Instead, Apple will sell small screens in a unique format, likely with a pure glass bezel or, if the technology permits, an entirely transparent screen—and seek to fill your entire home with secondary television/video devices. This is a relatively easy bet.”
Here are six reasons why:
• Big televisions are already beautiful, and an infrequent purchase decision
• Apple’s real play will be content sales, not TV hardware profits
• Consumers want to watch video everywhere while multitasking
• The television user experience still stinks
• Steve Jobs loved glass
• Apple could sell the things cheap
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
5 big challenges Apple will face in the TV business – May 3, 2012
Why Apple’s television will sell even faster than the iPad – April 26, 2012
Apple TV and the trojan horse strategy – April 20, 2012
Analyst: Apple considered investing in Sharp to aid development of television – April 13, 2012
Why TV fears the Apple iBroadcast revolution – March 23, 2012
Piper’s Munster on Apple iTV: ‘It will be the biggest thing in consumer electronics since the smartphone’ – March 1, 2012
PC Magazine reviews new 1080p Apple TV: Editors’ Choice – March 20, 2012
Strategy Analytics: With 32% share, Apple leading ‘Connected TV’ market with ‘hobby’ Apple TV – December 12, 2011
I guess I just don’t understand the logic in Apple getting into the manufacturing side of the television industry when they can reinvent and revolutionize it through Apple TV.
The logic for a true Apple television is the software interface AND the hardware. An Apple TV will have better hardware specs than today’s HDTVs:
– Apple’s custom CPU (for iOS)
– Resolution higher than 1080p
– 802.11ac WiFi (not “g” like today’s sets)
– Gigabit Ethernet (not 10/100 like today)
But it will be the iOS software and Apps (including gaming) that deliver the extra value and upgradability that will differentiate the product and help the company sell millions.
They can already deliver the software/user experience, with a great refresh cycle for the software/hardware, without building TVs.
Apple TV for $99, plus whatever set you want.
Many analysts and the public, including myself, said the same thing about cell phones.
jeez, Louise…”“Instead, Apple will sell small screens in a unique format…”
uh, I think that’s an iPad.
Uhhh, that’d be a “Plus 1”!
*Exactly*. I watch tv on mine while washing up!
“The television user experience still stinks”
Agree, but the current Apple TV seems much more up Apple’s ally. I really don’t think Apple will come-out with a TV, but there are so many rumors, I must be wrong.
Trust your own judgment. The people who write these ridiculous argument don’t have any.
“Big televisions are already beautiful”
bullshit.
I’d like a huuuge iPad as the format of a TV set.
And that will look different to most current tv’s how, exactly?
Virtually every set is a big flat screen with a very narrow black surround, only the surround, or ‘frame’, if you like, is generally narrower as a percentage of the overall tv. Utterly pointless, in fact.
the devices I see all have plastic frames around the edges and sharp corners. iPads have only glass on the front and rounded corners. put a cheap tablet (excluding the Samsung knock-off) next to an iPad. That’s the difference.
With things increasingly viewed over the internet, but with people still using a variety of external boxes for different content, a TV is essentially a monitor with a remote and a tuner (used to varying degrees). The remote is effectively only needed to switch between sources and control the tuner.
Why can’t an Apple Television just be a monitor, connected to an Apple TV box, albeit one with a tuner and some inputs? With more and more TV’s wall mounted, a monitor/Television with one combined power/data cable makes a lot of sense, and then you can upgrade the external features as and when required, but the monitor will just be a monitor and can last for as long as you want.
An iMac works as an all in one device because any peripheral devices are completely user defined (you either have a printer or you don’t etc) with a Television everyone has at least one or more external boxes (dvd/cable/satellite/games console) and no matter how good any online solution was, for the vast majority of people they’re going to need those other boxes for a long time.
The guy gives Dweeb advice.
• Big televisions are already beautiful, and an infrequent purchase decision
So what.
• Apple’s real play will be content sales, not TV hardware profits
Wrong. Apple makes their money on hardware, runs things like iTunes at break even.
• Consumers want to watch video everywhere while multitasking
So what.
• The television user experience still stinks
Right. Apple will fix this. (Content is something else.)
• Steve Jobs loved glass
Yes.
• Apple could sell the things cheap
Just because you wish it will??? Why should Apple sell something cheap, just to be cheap! What a moron.
My bet would be on Apple offering a two-part solution.
One part is the screen, with a wireless link for all interconnections, the second part would be a small sender box that functions in a similar way to your wireless router, accepting signals from the ‘net, cable, aerials and from other AV devices and sending them to multiple screens. The remote control could be anything from an iPod nano through iPhone to iPad.
The screen and sender would be sold individually and users could use existing iPads and iMacs instead if they so desired. They could also run multiple screens, hopefully with different content on some screens to others.
Apple will make a tv that when turned off, will be virtually invisible, no big black space of emptiness, and when on, a brilliant display of a TV image.
Apple will make a tv where the characters come to life, eat all the food in your fridge, and require a call to the police to remove them from your house.
I hear that in England, squatters have rights.
I think they will make a 4k “retina” big tv