Talk Of An Apple Television Set Appears Again

Posted on May 25, 2011 by AppleBitch



With the WWDC fast approaching, more talk from Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster regarding an Apple engineered television set has appeared once again.  The analyst (via Business Insider) seems convinced that Apple is designing a television set that could potentially be previewed at WWDC and would could play a part in raising Apple’s stock value higher than it already is.

“We believe Apple’s entrance into a new product category, possibly televisions, will unlock new perceived value in the company, and thus the stock.”

This comes despite the fact that Munster seems to be one of the only people in the world who believe that Apple is working on this. While it seems like such a move wouldn’t be outside the realms of possibility, is it really a good idea for Apple to be entering an already saturated market? Additionally, there have been absolutely no leaks, rumors or hints that Apple is working on such a device. If they are, then they have managed to keep the secret better protected than either the iPhone or the iPad ever were.

The analyst believes that the new Apple television is one of the key reasons that Apple’s stock will go higher in 2011.  While the stock increase is almost a given, the Apple branded television set is not.  It would be extremely surprising if Apple did indeed introduce such a device this late in the game.

Don’t Stop Believin’

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  • Apple Stock

    Apple is working on a television set.  It only makes sense.  TV’s are currently fragmented, stale, unorganized and not progressing.  Apple loves this type of situation, already have seen it with mp3 players, cell phones, and tablet computers.  All of these were established media devices and Apple stormed in to change things.  Same thing will happen here, interactive, facetime, internet from the remote control, 3D, God knows what else.  The wizards are moving to television.  Anyone who is worried about pricing of this new Apple television set doesn’t understand Apple.  They have never made things to match a market, they always make their own market.  This company is completely and fundamentally different than other firms (and their products).  No other company does this much and goes this far by selling just 30 products.  Apple TV (iTV, iScreen, iWatch, who knows) is just a matter of when not if.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1421393632 Osvaldo Z. Castellanos

    I kinda have a feeling it will be a Smart 3D HDTV that doesn’t require 3D glasses. As some of you already know… the iPad2 has such a display that 3D apps can be created that don’t require 3d glasses.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Bob-Forsberg/100001387343371 Bob Forsberg

    Apple introduced a song player late in the game. Apple introduced a phone late in the game.

    • http://www.applebitch.com AppleBitch

      ….and both were game changers.  Difficult to see with a TV (slightly older technology that mp3 players and smartphones)

  • Daren Wang

    tag says it all

    • Newfie Bill

      Agreed, only “Talk”. There are to many manufactures in this saturated market already. Apple is not use to pumping out garbage devices, and an Apple TV would be in the $2,500.00 to $3,000.00 Bracket. There is a market for this high end HDTV but that market is very very small.

      • http://nigeltufnel.myopenid.com/ Nigel Tufnel

        Not so sure about that. Look at the iPad, every other tablet maker is having trouble even matching its price. Apple’s laptops aren’t really overpriced nowadays either. Because they refuse to compete in the very low end (i.e. crapware) space, making their average machine more expensive than the competition’s average machine, there is the somewhat inaccurate perception that they are massively overpriced.

        Apple already puts most of the components in a modern television set in various devices they sell: large LCD screen, LED backlighting, video and audio decoding and processing components, CPU, GPU, flash storage, networking, remote controls, and of course, top flight industrial design. Stuff an AppleTV into an oversized iMac and you have a foundation. So they can pretty easily produce a first class tv. But the most important thing they make is the software, and this is where they can really differentiate. Not only can they pipe their own video into it, they can run apps, and likely make for a much more compelling experience than all the others who have tried and failed to make “interactive” tv work. QuickTime + ColorSync would work great on an Apple tv.

        I used to think this rumor was way out there, but now I’m not so sure. Apple today absolutely can produce a tv that blows away all competitors, but that is price-competitive too. Might be true that the potential market isn’t large enough, but there’s still a lot of tvs sold around the world every year. I’m still not sure they actually WILL do it, but I think they COULD.

        • Daren Wang

          I agree that Apple could flip a few switches and crank out a tv. I just sold my 24″ iMac, and it had a bigger screen than all but two of the televisions I’ve owned in my life. A couple of inputs, a tuner, and bam–television, and a good one, too.
          But on the business end, the margins are going to stink. There’s no way they could pull down the 30%-50% margins they achieve on their other products without an absolute game changer technology. And the ipad no glasses 3-d thing can’t work for a television–it is based on the camera tracking the head movements of one viewer, and would be useless in a living room thing. It’s also gimicky–hardly enough to launch a product line on.
          If Apple really wants to screw around with the living room, all they need to do is enable the full iOS on the AppleTV box, and let developers write and sell for it. It would cost them practically nothing to do, they’d gain another revenue stream and the “hobby” project would suddenly put the fear of god in everyone in that industry.

          • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1421393632 Osvaldo Z. Castellanos

            regarding the “ipad no-glasses 3-d thing”… who’s to say they wouldn’t incorperate an HD FaceTime Camera on the Smart 3D HDTV? A camera would be very useful in the livingroom to make family phone calls on holidays and other possible group calls. Why would Apple limit their FaceTime to just one to one person conversation? I’ve heard that AppleTV might be discontinued. Perhaps it will be replaced with something better… like an actual TV like a Smart H3DTV.