I'm still skeptical on this one. The largest TV manufacturers have been losing money for the past 45 years on their TV business because prices are too low and there's an oversupply of TVmanufacturing plants.
What exactly would Apple bring to the table? An even cheaper TV? A very expensive TV? Would people suddenly ditch their current LCD/LED TV for an Applebranded display?
Actually, that's not exactly why manufacturers are taking losses in their TV divisions. It's a symptom though.
And not everyone is losing money... it's companies like Sony that are taking a hit because they don't know how to run a business properly anymore.
You have 2 tiers of televisions: high end, mid-range, and budget level. The high end sets are usually adoptive of new technologies that are still very expensive (latest display tech, etc) and few people buy them. That's where they are loosing their money is mainly in the high end sector. Those sets don't sell, and then sell at a loss to clear inventory. When that tech/parts come down in cost, they're already running a loss in that category when people start to buy them as they become the mid-range set.
The challenge has been getting people to trade up, but the reality is most people don't see any value in doing that.
Don't feel too bad for the industry either, who got majorly busted in a price fixing scheme and spanked by regulators all over the world for driving panel prices up as much as 400%!
Low end sets still produce a profit... but it's the mid-range that is the gravy train. Ironically, it's the companies that were involved in the price fixing that seem to be crying that they can't make any money.
All that said, where Apple has always been successful is charging more for the same hardware as a competitor and a value in the user experience and design. If that success carries over to TV sets, they'd be wildly successful.
Look at a midrange set... something in the 43-50" range that currently sells for $699-$1199 depending on manufacture. (And it's the companies selling sets with the same innards at the higher ranges having financial problems...hmm) Apple could put out a set that's basically that $1199 set that Sony can't seem to sell... sell it for $1699, and sell 20 times more than Sony if their strategy carries over well to televisions... IF.
Where I think Apple will have a hard time is convincing people that user experience is worth a premium no matter what the feature set might turn out to be. No one has had a slam dunk there yet. Apps on a tv? Not a selling point so far. 3D? Largely ignored. Google TV? Yeah, no comment needed there.
A TV is something you watch and not something you interact with on a large scale. This is far different than a tablet, handheld device, phone, computer, etc. Apple might just be the company who does "crack the code" for generating consumer interest. Will be very interesting to see.
At the end of all days though, unless you've got lots of excess income to blow on things, most people that want a new TV usually have a budget for what they can spend. They aren't audio/video-philes. They're people who want an upgrade to screen size and a more cinematic experience for the least amount of money. This is why high end sets are financial losses on the balance sheets of all the major manufactures. Dropping an extra hundred or two hundred dollars to go from the bargain range to a mid-range set is something most people can find value in or pull off... when you go that next step... you're usually talking about going from a $500-$700 set to a $1200+ set... almost double the average consumers budget. That's a hard sell for any company in this economy.
Though, I think Apple is the company that can pull it off and be profitable.
