Apple to Launch 3 HDTV Models by March 2012?

[divinox]

Doubt it'll happen, Apples pricing is generally very high, and i dont know how they plan on competing with other reputable brands with the prices they offer.. As someone mentioned earlier Apples cinema display starts at $999.. You could easily find a much larger 1080p LCD for less.. And not to mention from quality brands such..

But if Apple can provide competitive pricing with apple tv embedded in the display. And if it also has te ability to play IOS games then it'd be pretty awesome..

You cant compare Apples cinema display with a random "1080p LCD". Yes, it is overpriced, but not as much as one could think. TN panels are very different from ips panels (which Apple uses, made by LG if im not mistaken), both in price and functionality. Anyway, you'd have to compare it with something like the Dell u2711 or whatever the LG monitor that i cant remember the name of is called.

Apple being Apple and Apple consumers being willing to pay extra they could probably succeed. I wouldnt dream of buying one though.

 

[jonnysods]

Only if it sells for $8000 apiece.

I think they enjoy good money by their simple ATV push on rentals.

 

[DoctorWho]

i hope it's 720p.......

It had better be 1080p if Apple wants to compete in the current TV market.

 

[emaja]

Their mistake would be to aim at the high end and think they could go right in at the premium end of the market.

Apple would never make a price-leader or even a mid-market TV. Apple is about giving a premium experience - at a premium price. The high end is exactly where Apple would go.

The margins are in the iTunes rentals.

Apple does not sell hardware at a loss to make it up later in iTunes rentals and purchases. From what we know Apple makes about a 30% profit on all hardware sales. That 30% would price them way out of the market.

 

[Phormic]

I really, REALLY doubt it. I can't see how Apple can make their traditional profit in this extremely competitive, commodity-type market of HDTVs.

I see your point but I remember the same arguments being made when there were rumours of Apple releasing a mobile phone in 2006. "Why would they want to enter a saturated commodity market like that with such thin margins?"

Then look what happened.

 

[Liam8]

i knew they would do this eventually... apple tv seemed too much like transitional technology...

 

[Speedy2]

The margins are in the iTunes rentals.

Apple never worked this way, and most likely never will. They sell unique hardware, because that's where the fat profit margins are. iTunes rentals aren't making them money to speak of right now, nor do they have any potential to do so in the future.

This is why they won't get into the TV market. What for? There's no chance to enter the market with a game changing device everyone's been waiting for. People are very happy with their big-ass flatscreen TVs. All Apple could do is copy Sony, and that's not gonna happen.

 

[Eddyisgreat]

Utter nonsense.

Apple charges a grand for a 27" display.

You can get a 40" TV for that.

Sorry, but no.

You cannot compare a 40" 1080/720p panel @ 1080x1920 to the 27" ACD's IPS panel @ 2560x1440 resolution. Pixel density becomes an issue here.

The two are totally different.

 

[Marx55]

Hopefully with Full PiP. After image quality, the most important feature of a TV set for many people is the Full Picture-in-Picture (Full PiP), which requires at least two tuners inside the TV set.

 

[emaja]

Hopefully with Full PiP. After image quality, the most important feature of a TV set for many people is the Full Picture-in-Picture (Full PiP), which requires at least two tuners inside the TV set.

People use the tuners in their sets? Everyone I know has some sort of cable/satellite/Tivo for the DVRs.

 

[jmsait19]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A5274d Safari/7534.48.3)

I'd rather see them start their own MVNO... But I'm still satisfied with my 36" Sony CRT...

 

[CWallace]

I likely wouldn't believe it even if I did see it.

Apple makes their money off the hardware, and I am sure there are people who would pay a premium for an Apple-branded television solely because it was an Apple-branded television, but if tv is "just a hobby", what would an Apple TV be? A passing fancy?

Unless it does 3D without the glasses, of course.

 

[apttap]

How are people even considering this? How can Apple improve the existing model?

Apple TV is a hobby. This isn't going to change soon. I bought my 46" for under 1k. Samsung, works great. I can't get video of a higher resolution easily. Why would I buy something more "premium"?

Apply is killing physical media. They don't yet support 1080p. Why in the f#ck would they move into a crowded market where they have not footing to improve?

 

[huntercr]

No highs...no lows....must be Bose.

Meh... Their original acoustic wave system
was the bees knees when I got one as a gift in 1993.

The only problem I have with them is they haven't done anything since that ( and the older acoustamass on which it was based ).
well, that and everything they sell is just so overpriced.

As for the 16 speaker thing, I assume the rumor meant it was 16 speakers built in... in a "behind the screen" positional speaker thing. Might be nice I suppose, if you had like a 70 inch TV.

I personally don't want Apple to enter the TV business. It's such a low margin market. Why do this?, and one of the only markets Apple's component manufacturers compete in directly. ( LG and Samsung I mean )

blah.

I can think of 10 other places Apple would do better than the TV market.

 

[TheCoffeeBoy]

Apple are most likely experimenting with TVs, but to have a product ready to ship next year?...

Narr, the Apple TV box is still too green, still no TV App marketplace, still not enough adoption. Apple would want a market to sell into first and it would be a better gamble to get Apple TV Apps into the market via the existing Apple TV boxes then to sell full TV into that growing ecosystem.

Also, why would Apple sell a TV with a standard HD tuner in it when they really want you to purchase ~everything~ from iTunes. Apple can't make money from Free To Air content. A big hunk of glass with integrated iTunes and nothing else (just a power cord and wifi adapter) - think massive immovable iPad stuck on the wall - that's an "Apple TV" and until they can market that with confidence it ain't going to happen IMO.

 

[MR.Raul]

Did someone just say overpriced?
Risky move if true, but if someone could pull it off, who'd be better then Apple.
Even if low profit or none, they might "lure" new customers into the Apple world of devices and get em hocked.

 

[DoctorWho]

The only way I would buy an Apple TV is if it was some super-high resolution (not offered by competitors) otherwise there are simply too many good TV's that would cost a fraction of the price.

How would you benefit from a higher resolution?

For a start, 720/1080p content would look horrible on it. Have you ever tried to watch a DVD on a 17" MacBook Pro? The content is stretched and it just looks bad.

I can't see any use for a resolution higher than 1080p when there is currently no content with a higher resolution than that.

 

[Speedy2]

I see your point but I remember the same arguments being made when there were rumours of Apple releasing a mobile phone in 2006. "Why would they want to enter a saturated commodity market like that with such thin margins?"

Then look what happened.

The difference is, everyone hated their phones, and no one apart from a few enthusiasts actually used them to do anything else but call and text, even though it was obvious that you could do so much more.

I've heard so many times that people want to do more with a TV than just sit there and watch. But despite all efforts to bring interactive content, Internet, webcams and whatnot to the TV, it all failed. Not because it wasn't done right, but because people DO just want to sit there and watch (and maybe play some video games). And they can already do that very well with their current TVs.

 

[chrono1081]

Utter nonsense.

Apple charges a grand for a 27" display.

You can get a 40" TV for that.

Lol at comparing Apple to Bose.

Bose makes garbage...Apple does not.

Thank you! Years ago when I worked at Circuit City people would come in wanting Bose because they heard they were the best, so we would show them Bose, then something else we sold like Kef, needless to say no one ever walked out with Bose.

 

[CWallace]

Why in the f#ck would (Apple) move into a crowded market where they have no footing to improve?

People said much the same about an Apple-branded cellular phone before 2007.

Seriously, if Apple does market a branded television, then like the iPhone, it will have to offer something never before done (or never before done well) to get people to adopt it in large numbers despite the price:

• A 3,840 x 2160 display (assuming it's currently feasible)
• 3D without the need for glasses (assuming it's currently feasible)
• Totally immersive surround sound (What's Tomlinson Holman up to nowadays?)

 

[mattg3]

People said much the same about an Apple-branded cellular phone before 2007.

Seriously, if Apple does market a branded television, then like the iPhone, it will have to offer something never before done (or never before done well) to get people to adopt it in large numbers despite the price:

• A 3,840 x 2160 display (assuming it's currently feasible)
• 3D without the need for glasses (assuming it's currently feasible)
• Totally immersive surround sound (What's Tomlinson Holman up to nowadays?)

And it must be an OLED display

 

[zedsdead]

It needs the following:

(1) slim and amazing design, which it obviously would have.

(2) App Store - this would be the biggest incentive for people to buy it, especially if Apple could work out ways for customers to buy "channels" as apps. This could change the industry.

(3) Apple TV software built in - no brainer.

(4) 1080p, LED 3D-Dipslay - I hate 3D, but its a must for a high end TV

 

[Zaqfalcon]

Apple make a product you would need to plug other manufacturers' peripherals into?

Sounds like bollox to me.

 

[SgtPepper12]

Showing how stupid many Apple consumers are...

I agree. On my 1080p television I can't even tell the difference between a 720p source and a 1080p source at normal viewing distance. So yeah, of course, Apple will build a television with 2160p to make sure that even the people who watches at a distance of 20cm get the full Retina experience.

I also doubt that if this is true Apple would use the higher quality displays they use for their ACDs. A television just doesn't need things like high color accuracy, high viewing angles and so on. And 16 speakers? Come on, everybody knows that this "virtual surround" thing is just marketing crap. It doesn't work and never will. The only thing that could work reliably one day is HRTF.

 

[Kusanagi6913]

Whenever I want a laugh--come to Macrumors

How many of you actually follow Apple?

How many threads do we need to pull from past years where the naysayers who are stating Apple won't go into TV's also predicted Apple not going into the phone business, the netbook/ tablet business and so on?

It never ceases to amaze me. Think different--as in--whatever you think Apple will do--then realize you are not Apple--you are not Jobs--trying to predict him is a fool's game and therefore you are what you type.

My question--is why would Apple NOT get into TV's? To the poster--I hate my TV. You state most people don't hate their TV's--I hate mine. I have a top of the line Samsung and constantly fight with the hookups when trying to do something new or add in a new component to my entertainment system.

One poster asked why would someone want an AppleTv? I want simple!! Best picture, best audio, easy interface for some casual games and apps and stream tech. All of this could easily be done by Apple and if it is and it's in the premium---'dream to own space'--then it will do as well as every other wish fulfillment item.

The TV is the ultimate destination for Apple. Any intelligent person saw this the minute they dropped the computer from their name. You don't think they did that just for music players do you?? I'm not saying it will happen when this article does--but please ask yourself--what is Apple trying to learn with Apple TV? Hobby indeed--a hobby to spend money, test market and tech and not answer to shareholders (hello Logitech).

Good lord--if any of you bet against Apple's stock you would be broke years ago.

Kusanagi out (downvote me--I know I told the truth but it hurts don't it).