“While speculation of an Apple-built HDTV has cooled somewhat amid the launch of the iPhone 5 and expected ‘iPad mini,’ one analyst says the company’s next market disruptor is already here, and it’s not a TV,” Mikey Campbell reports for AppleInsider.
“Barclays analyst Ben Reitzes believes TV remotes, not TVs themselves, may be key to Apple’s “next big thing.” Apple has more control to expand the total addressable market (TAM) for its mobile products, like the iPhone and iPad, than its competitors, and therefore has the ability to offer innovative software and hardware features at accessible price,” Campbell reports. “‘We feel one of the best ways to increase the iOS device TAM is by expanding use cases so that every home could use an iOS device as a TV remote,’ Reitzes writes.”
Campbell reports, “Furthering speculation of the so-called ‘iPad mini,’ the analyst notes the much-rumored tablet’s smaller 7.85-inch format could be one of the first to expand TAM by becoming a TV remote… Extending the idea into the future, the iPad could one day be used as a “central command” for the digital home, an idea already being tested by home automation companies. Usually, central control of common household items, like lights, HVAC units and TVs, is cost-prohibitive and requires a multitude of bridging devices.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Using the TWCable TV app on iPad to control the TV vs. the Time Warner Cable-supplied set-top boxes, remotes, and “software” that would make even Microsoft retch is like using a brand new 2012 iMac vs. a 1984 IBM PCjr.