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Apple Gives Media Executives Vague Hints about Its Television Plans

leroypants said:
So basically Apple saw a Microsoft Kinect commercial and decided to, like everything else in apples history, steal the idea.
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Agreed. The TV might have some antenna issues as well, just like their phones.😀 If you sit too close, the antenna might stop working. Now their users will have to cover the TV up with a bumper.. lol.
 
It would be awesome if it could even use voice input to detect moods. So if you sound like a down-on-your-luck chemistry teacher, it'll start playing Breaking Bad. Or if you sound like an arrogant, intelligent Vicodin addict, it'll queue up House. That's one feature I always thought was missing from Genius: automatically creating playlists based on mood.
 
For those thinking "baby steps" - I think you're wrong. Sorry - but if Apple is going to enter a well defined market with a "revolutionary" new product - it had better come with both barrels blazing and give people a reason to not only spend $$ on a premium device but also a reason to ditch what they already have because it's too impossible to resist.

And quite frankly - I simply don't see it happening with any great speed anyway. I might be proven wrong - but people don't upgrade TVs like they do phones, music players and even computers.
 
Koodauw said:
as long as it can automatically bring the volume level of advertisements down to be the same as the shows, it will be awesome.
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The Gov. did something right this time. 2012, all of these guys must stop blasting ads at a louder level. They must all be the same volume starting 2012.
 
- Airplay
- Siri
- iDevice as a remote
- Streaming iTunes content on demand

What exactly requires a 1999$ TV set to do any of this ? Give me a 99$ AppleTV 3 and let me use my current 1080p TV set and maybe you'll get my money.
 
Two reasons that Apple itself "leaked" this.

1) Build some excitement via "official channels"

2) Buy plenty of time. This is further out than 2012.
 
samcraig said:
For those thinking "baby steps" - I think you're wrong. Sorry - but if Apple is going to enter a well defined market with a "revolutionary" new product - it had better come with both barrels blazing and give people a reason to not only spend $$ on a premium device but also a reason to ditch what they already have because it's too impossible to resist.

And quite frankly - I simply don't see it happening with any great speed anyway. I might be proven wrong - but people don't upgrade TVs like they do phones, music players and even computers.
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Google is planning on having GoogleTV baked into a ton of TV sets in 2012.

Are they on the right track? Or do they even have a clue?
 
AppleScruff1 said:
But when Apple does it, it will suddenly become revolutionary and people will wonder how they ever got along without being able to talk to their tv.
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That's how Apple does things. The technology won't be new, people would already have used it in some form, but they will reinvent the whole experience and make you want to kick yourself in the behind for not having thought of something so "obvious" first! 😀
 
KnightWRX said:
- Airplay
- Siri
- iDevice as a remote
- Streaming iTunes content on demand

What exactly requires a 1999$ TV set to do any of this ? Give me a 99$ AppleTV 3 and let me use my current 1080p TV set and maybe you'll get my money.
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Agree... selling lots of improved ATVs positions Apple alot better to get into people's living rooms and add value to their other devices. $99 is an easy sale and once they get you into their ecosystem, it's hard to leave.

.
 
b166er said:
Am I the only one that doesn't want to speak to my TV? I like voice control on a phone, because I can do simple tasks while driving. But on a TV I feel like I would have to talk very loud or sit very close to the TV. Unless I am speaking in to a remote- and I think the general idea is to ditch the remote with the Apple TV. I'd rather just use my phone as a remote. Type in what I want to watch, etc. Sometimes I have to watch TV with the headphones on because I don't want to disturb others and having to speak to the TV would mess that up too.

Just my two cents, I am really psyched to see what they are going to do. I'm really hoping they hammer out some kind of deal with actual networks. I think I speak for millions of people when I say we are sick of having to purchase bundled cable packages when we only want a few select channels. A la cart programming needs to happen sooner or later.
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You just need a good mic, I can give my xbox commands from the next room without yelling...
 
pancakedrawer said:
I'd like to see the future of TVs to be a setup like computers are. Ie:

- High quality monitor as thin as possible. No speakers, no other internals, just a monitor
- Small ATV sized unit that streams content from the internet, this means it is not relying on region/country specific connections etc Content is delivered all around the world at the same time and on demand. You pay a monthly subscription and can watch content when you feel like. No need to store content on your computer (although you can if you like) and no need to record your shows to watch them later. This ATV communicates wirelessly with the monitor and speakers.

- When we want to upgrade we can leave the monitor attached to the wall etc and just pick up a new ATV.
- We don't need to manage content, apple stores it for us and allows us to download anything we want to our computer for offline playback (eg sports matches might be available for a week or so)
- Our own music, movies and tv shows can stream as they do with the current ATV
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+1.

Furthermore, the ATV you mentioned can be built into the AirPort Extreme Base Station.

Even furthermore, the entire computer can be built into a device like the AirPort Extreme Base Station. This scenario is actually a workstation with wireless displays.
 
Michael Scrip said:
Correct.

So to samcraig's comment... which one will come out with barrels blazing?
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I'm not sure what you're getting at. I do know there's a big difference between google licensing their software to tv manufacturers and other devices which will simply have the added benefit of being internet capable which is what many sets have now but not-so-great software vs Apple's "reported" approach.

All manufacturers aside however - the point remains that people don't upgrade TVs at the same speed as phones, mp3 players, cd players, blu-ray players, etc.

So whatever winds up in the pipeline has either got to completely knock people's socks off - or it's going to be a slow(er) transition/adoption rate.

People in the television/video marketplace are and have been frustrated for awhile because of the hi def media wars, 3D and the like. Early adopters are early adopters - and devices when released will be bought. But Apple would really need to do something incredible for people to "forget" they just bought their big screen TVs, etc and buy something new/else.

or again - it will take much more time then say, the iPhone, to ever hit that kind of stride.
 
samcraig said:
I'm not sure what you're getting at. I do know there's a big difference between google licensing their software to tv manufacturers and other devices which will simply have the added benefit of being internet capable which is what many sets have now but not-so-great software vs Apple's "reported" approach.

All manufacturers aside however - the point remains that people don't upgrade TVs at the same speed as phones, mp3 players, cd players, blu-ray players, etc.

So whatever winds up in the pipeline has either got to completely knock people's socks off - or it's going to be a slow(er) transition/adoption rate.

People in the television/video marketplace are and have been frustrated for awhile because of the hi def media wars, 3D and the like. Early adopters are early adopters - and devices when released will be bought. But Apple would really need to do something incredible for people to "forget" they just bought their big screen TVs, etc and buy something new/else.

or again - it will take much more time then say, the iPhone, to ever hit that kind of stride.
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Yeah.

Both Apple and Google have had products out there. AppleTV for almost 5 years and GoogleTV for just over 1 year.

I agree that they both have to do something spectacular to shift people's thinking of television.

My question was... who's likely to get it right first? Apple or Google?
 
So, if Apple makes a rectangular TV with a thin bezel, can Samsung slap a design-copy cat case against Apple in Dusseldorf Germany?

440x330-d8000_front.jpg


I found many community designs in EU for designs like D8000 owned by Samsung.

Apple better not make a TV that's rectangular, black, or indistinguishable from 10 feet away.
 
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This truly will be the first big step for Apple in the Post Jobs era. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out, as there are very important repercussions that will reverberate through the industry on this one.

This will happen with both the good and the missteps. Personally I am not much into TV's, perhaps part of the reason was because Apple was not involved?

In all seriousness that's at least partly true. A TV has been just a glorified display monitor almost since their inception. Better sound and better displays have cropped up over the years, but it will be interesting to say the least to see what Apple has up it's sleeves on this one.

Then again maybe it won't. It will be an HD screen of at least 50" that will have sophisticated iOS-like software running, with a few extra bells and whistles. Enter the app store for TV related apps (insert hogwild developers here) and the cycle repeats.
 
woah woah woah

All the hate and we don't even know what it is. Apple makes the best phones, mp3 players, computers, tablets, routers, keyboards and mice, etc etc and most of these things either came into existence or were completely redesigned within the last 10 years. Can't we just trust that Steve knew what we would want when he came up with this idea? However my worries ARE: 1. The 1.0 release might not be great (if history repeats) 2. It doesn't end up as good as Steve would have made it himself. :apple:
 
StellarSoul said:
Baby steps. First gen will feature extremely good content delivery (tv show subscription service and cheap movies). Basically just an evolution of the current Apple TV with a screen. Possibly will have basic apps. Second gen and onwards will have bells and whistles like iSight camera and faster processor and graphics set up capable of handling big apps like games downloadable from an app store. The evolution of Apple's TV will be just like the iPhone and iPad. E.g. Basic at first but will flourish over the second and third iterations. Apple don't want to throw everything into the first gen because failure will look even worse if their revolutionary living room machine fails to take off as opposed to the evolution of their hobby.
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I'm sure 99% of the people don't change their TV sets each year. The 1st gen. must have features that are at least 3-4 years ahead of competitors.
 
haruhiko said:
I'm sure 99% of the people don't change their TV sets each year. The 1st gen. must have features that are at least 3-4 years ahead of competitors.
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But Apple customers might buy a new set every 2 years like they do with the iPhone. If it is a big enough change, they will buy every year. The bottom line is the Apple consumer cares more about Apple than they do about themselves. Even if the technology is a generation or two behind, people will buy it because it just works. People who want the latest tech will buy a Windows or Android TV.
 
AppleScruff1 said:
But Apple customers might buy a new set every 2 years like they do with the iPhone. If it is a big enough change, they will buy every year. The bottom line is the Apple consumer cares more about Apple than they do about themselves. Even if the technology is a generation or two behind, people will buy it because it just works. People who want the latest tech will buy a Windows or Android TV.
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Dude, two thirds of those iPhone cost are subsidized by the carriers, that phone is 600$ without it, that's actually as much as a normal tv, can you image how much an unsubsidized apple tv will cost? There is a difference between 200$ and $2000, plus your iPhone keeps its value due to the fact that you only paid for 1/3 of it and can even sell it back with a profit, you can't do that with an atv.
 
goobot said:
Dude, two thirds of those iPhone cost are subsidized by the carriers, that phone is 600$ without it, that's actually as much as a normal tv, can you image how much an unsubsidized apple tv will cost? There is a difference between 200$ and $2000, plus your iPhone keeps its value due to the fact that you only paid for 1/3 of it and can even sell it back with a profit, you can't do that with an atv.
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Many people buy the iPhone unsubsidized, not the majority, but still a good number. People also buy the MBP and MBA by the millions, and they start at $999. I can see an Apple TV starting at $1999, maybe even higher. It's Apple, people won't care.
 
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