Ok so not to be confused with the actual AppleTV boxtop product. I'm talking about a physical TV. I just read ANOTHER article who's "sources" insist that Apple is working on a tv set to be released in late 2012... These rumors have been going around for at least a year.
I'm not asking if you think it will actually happen (mostly because I have a feeling most of you would say no), but lets enter the hypothetical room for a second. Imagine we KNEW Apple were going to release a tv set (maybe Steve or Tim announced it at a media event), WHY would Apple be doing that? What advantage does this give them over the current AppleTV implementation?
The ONLY benefit I can think of is including an iSight so you can facetime from your TV set.
I can think of a whole bunch of negatives.
Razor thin profit margins on TVs.
Significant less market penetration ($100 product vs $1,000+ product).
Long product lifespan (on a $1,000-$2,000 product I'm going to wait 10 years to replace it, but on a $100 product I could replace it every 2-3 years if there were significant features)
Competing in an already saturated and extremely competitive market
Whatever "stuff" Apple wants to be able to cram into a TV set they can easily just cram it into the AppleTV. Maybe Apple wants you to buy one of their TV's for each room, but an AppleTV can be moved around to whichever TV you want...
Maybe I'm missing something. Can you think of any advantages to have a physical tv rather than the AppleTV?
sidenote: I think Apple should merge the Airport extreme, timecapsule, and Apple TV into a kind of ultimate media hub. It could stream out all your music/movies to all the tv's, computers, and iDevices in your house.
I'm not asking if you think it will actually happen (mostly because I have a feeling most of you would say no), but lets enter the hypothetical room for a second. Imagine we KNEW Apple were going to release a tv set (maybe Steve or Tim announced it at a media event), WHY would Apple be doing that? What advantage does this give them over the current AppleTV implementation?
The ONLY benefit I can think of is including an iSight so you can facetime from your TV set.
I can think of a whole bunch of negatives.
Razor thin profit margins on TVs.
Significant less market penetration ($100 product vs $1,000+ product).
Long product lifespan (on a $1,000-$2,000 product I'm going to wait 10 years to replace it, but on a $100 product I could replace it every 2-3 years if there were significant features)
Competing in an already saturated and extremely competitive market
Whatever "stuff" Apple wants to be able to cram into a TV set they can easily just cram it into the AppleTV. Maybe Apple wants you to buy one of their TV's for each room, but an AppleTV can be moved around to whichever TV you want...
Maybe I'm missing something. Can you think of any advantages to have a physical tv rather than the AppleTV?
sidenote: I think Apple should merge the Airport extreme, timecapsule, and Apple TV into a kind of ultimate media hub. It could stream out all your music/movies to all the tv's, computers, and iDevices in your house.