An Apple TV, not Apple TV

Kennedy said:

Apple is fairly renowned for their displays...

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Yeah, how 'bout 'them' MacBook and 20" iMac displays, there!

Kennedy said:

Why doesn't Apple make high-end television sets? Dell tried it, but c'mon, it's Dell. Apple is fairly renowned for their displays, imagine the hullaballoo over an actual TV? Or maybe they're waiting for OLED to develop and HD to take over are the norm. I think it would be sick, they'd be one of the only US television manufacturers (possibly the only high-end one, I can't think of any others...).

Thoughts?

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Umm, Apple do not make their own displays, they spec and buy them from the LCD manufacturers such as LG and Samsung.

Apple actually would face against very competitive brands that may not make this a successful project for Apple, Sony and Samsung has been the top TV brands for years. The only company that is doing better against them is Vizio, which is known for the budget price. Apple would only go into fields that would have a high-margin profit for them, I do not think TVs are going to be it.

Kennedy said:

You don't think high-end TVs have a high-profit margin? I always assumed there was a fairly large one, judging by how much we have to pay.

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No, it's actually not that high. That's why the cables and such cost so much (if you're a sucker)... that's where the retailers make their money. And that's why Dell got out of it. Apple wouldn't be able to compete with the Sonys, Samsungs, Panasonics... they'd basically only grab some subset of their existing customer base--probably only a subset of the fanboy base.

I'd bet they've looked into it and there just isn't a viable business plan to make it work.

Considering the factor when comparing Apple's displays to every other display on the planet that is cheaper, I don't want Apple to get into TVs. I just got a Samsung 32" 720p TV for $499. No, it's not the shiny pretty 1080p model, but it's pretty damn good at $499. Samsung also had a 1080p TV for about $799, but I didn't need to spend the extra $300.

With SSDs becoming all the rage, I would love to see TV manufacturers putting small ones in certain models so you can install other software, perhaps like ATV software. Add WiFi to these TVs and you could eventually not need an extra box cluttering up your setup.

I'm a fan of the concept of putting my iTunes content on a television, but Apple TV's software is total crap compared to even iTunes. I hooked my MBP up to that TV and was amazed at the awesomeness of having Hulu and Netflix on a 32" TV. The only problem is I needed my keyboard and mouse. Surely the geniuses at Apple can make the ATV software work more like that instead of like the mentally challenged version of Front Row that is on the box now.

Michael CM1 said:

I'm a fan of the concept of putting my iTunes content on a television, but Apple TV's software is total crap compared to even iTunes. I hooked my MBP up to that TV and was amazed at the awesomeness of having Hulu and Netflix on a 32" TV. The only problem is I needed my keyboard and mouse. Surely the geniuses at Apple can make the ATV software work more like that instead of like the mentally challenged version of Front Row that is on the box now.

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I don't think I've ever read anything on this board that I have disagreed with more

Sorry, I'll take the ATV interface before everything else out there...