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Competitors Already 'Scrambling' to React to Apple's TV Plans
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The problem though is Apple's prices never drop as a result of this so-called increased "competition". Plus, Apple's market share keeps going up.
Freaking amazing and totally confounding.
Nope. Apple competes on quality, not price. They keep bumping up the specs instead of bumping down the price. They've gotten so good at getting good that few/none can keep up.
Hopefully with Full Picture-in-Picture (Full PiP), which requires at least two Digital Terrestrial Television (DTTV or DTT) tuners inside the TV set. After image quality, that is the most important feature of a TV set for many people. Which manufacturers/models deliver that now?
According to the Fourth Quarter results, "International sales accounted for 63 percent of the quarters revenue."
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2011/10/18Apple-Reports-Fourth-Quarter-Results.html
Cable card works quite well when you think about what it actually does. For Apple it would be perfect for allowing users to get cable content unscrambled. Peoples biggest pet peeve was the lack of bidirectional data flow. So you can't use the cable operators guide, nor their on demand. Which for Apple wouldn't be a big deal. They would provide their own EPG, and iTunes would provide the on demand.
Sounds like you are about as short sighted as all of the current television manufacturers. Televisions already have everything you just cited. Can it be improved upon with new tech? Sure it can. However, that's not what's going to sell new TV's. You are caught up in the my screen is bigger than your screen argument.
People want a complete holistic entertainment experience. Nothing can provide that at this point. With the progress the Apple has shown in voice recognition, ported to a TV with the streaming an integration of Apple TV, iPads, iPods, iPhones, as well as iOS5 taking a mainstream headline to round out the music, movie, and games infrastructure, THAT is what people want. And it sounds like Apple is going to give it to them.
If you haven't seen by now that the average consumer has no problem paying a premium for the ultimate in convenient, portable entertainment and functionality, then you need to wake up.
Why does everyone assume that apple would make a tv that needs to be replaced every few years? Because of their current product lineup and model? Guess what, they sell phones and computers, things that every manufacturer expects to be replaced in a few years (notebooks can last around 5 until techonology catches up to it, phones of course every one or two years), so of course their current business model looks like that.
If they got into TVs do people really think Apple, of all companies, is going to keep that every-few-years business model for TVs just because they do that with phones and computers too? Common sense, people. If apple enters the market, they're more than likely going to know how to do it, and it won't just be on a whim like some seem to think.
And it sounds like all the doubters saying "they'll be just like the rest of the manufacturers" haven't learned from the past. It's not a guarantee of course that history repeats itself, but considering the way iPods were doubted, iPhones were doubted, and iPads were definitely doubted, apple's shown that it knows a lot more than the doubters do. Of course there are software "miscues" like MobileMe and a few missteps with some iPod nanos and all, but their latest hardware has ultimately shown to be underestimated by a lot of doubters.
The Sonys of the world have two choices
Exactly. If you're Sony, you can do either of two things:
1. Release your own advanced TV before Apple, make your glaring mistakes in public, then get crushed when Apple releases theirs.
or
2. Wait to see what Apple does, scramble to copy it, and be at least a year behind (and possibly get sued for infringement anyway.)
Come to think of it, Sony will probably end up doing 1 and 2.
Exactly. If you're Sony, you can do either of two things:
1. Release your own advanced TV before Apple, make your glaring mistakes in public, then get crushed when Apple releases theirs.
or
2. Wait to see what Apple does, scramble to copy it, and be at least a year behind (and possibly get sued for infringement anyway.)
Come to think of it, Sony will probably end up doing 1 and 2.
The Apple TV set when it arrives will be just like all the TV sets seen on futuristic movies of the past...
-You'll be able to watch different channels at the same time
-It will have built in camera for FaceTime chat
-It will be voice activated
-It will be able to send/receive emails
-No need to DVD/Blu-Ray drives as all media will be available by download
-It might come as a large size 42"/50" plus, with a smaller set available which can connect to the larger through Bluetooth for individual bedroom viewing
-You'll be able to listen to music/ view picture etc etc through it
-You'll be able to watch different channels at the same time
-It will have built in camera for FaceTime chat
-It will be voice activated
-It will be able to send/receive emails
-No need to DVD/Blu-Ray drives as all media will be available by download
-It might come as a large size 42"/50" plus, with a smaller set available which can connect to the larger through Bluetooth for individual bedroom viewing
-You'll be able to listen to music/ view picture etc etc through it
sure they are, they have lost money year after year, they make ugly stuff that nobody buys anymore. sony used to rule, their time has come and gone.
The market may be larger but the price for broadcasting is not. For the 2010 to 2013 period of time, the English Premier League brought in a total of 1.782 billion pounds (2.79 billion US$) for the sale of their television rights in all markets around the globe. The NFL brought in 20.4 billion US$ (13.02 billion pounds) for just the broadcast rights in the US for the same period of time.
Soccer is very popular throughout the world, but nothing can compare to the economic impact of American Football. NFL rights are not just the most expensive sports rights in the world, but the most expensive of ANY entertainment property.
Personally, I can't stand watching the NFL but I recognize the power of the behemoth.
As for the Apple TV, if it can't carry NCAA sports (specifically basketball) you can count me out.
If the competitors are probably not really scrambling yet. They are clueless right now. Once they see whatever Apple has produced, THEN they will be scrambling. Scrambling to COPY. As per usual.
The hardware itself is just the tip of the iceberg
Yes. The doubters (and copiers) tend to focus on just the hardware. And how could they not? That's the easiest thing to grasp, literally. The hardware is easy to reverse engineer, redesign, and build. Just look at the flood of Brand X craplets that have hit the market in the last year and a half, Android or otherwise.
And that's the trap the Apple competitors fall into every time. The hardware design is easy to copy. But the OS and apps can't be mashed up quickly. The OS needs to be developed over time, 3rd party developers need to be brought up to speed on the new OS features, they need to get experience building apps for the OS and its frameworks.
And that's just the easy part of the software side of the equation. It's extremely hard and time-consuming to build your own software delivery and media e-commerce infrastructure. It took Apple about a decade of relentless work. And it's paid off hugely. The success of iPod, iPhone, and iPad that you mention is largely due to that infrastructure.
And that infrastructure is about to pay off even more for Apple. Because they can leverage it to help make their television project a success. All the pieces are in place now, from basic TV control (Siri) to apps instead of TV channels (if Apple even wants to present users with a traditional screen-full-of-icons), to iOS running on the circuit board inside the TV chassis, to iTunes for renting and purchasing content, to video mirroring from iOS devices for gaming, to deals with the movie and TV studios, to component deals with their hardware suppliers, etc.
It's all there, and if it's not completely there now, its just a matter of time. The whole TV industry, from TV sets to cable boxes to satellite receivers to DVRs to commercials to networks, is the current "old previous big thing" that needs to be revolutionized. Idiotic ideas like 3D TVs and massive multi-room DVR systems (TiVo Premiere) are signs that the old system needs to be evolved out of the past. The problem is that there's so much inertia and the major players are so deeply entrenched that it could take decades to change things.
Yes. The doubters (and copiers) tend to focus on just the hardware. And how could they not? That's the easiest thing to grasp, literally. The hardware is easy to reverse engineer, redesign, and build. Just look at the flood of Brand X craplets that have hit the market in the last year and a half, Android or otherwise.
And that's the trap the Apple competitors fall into every time. The hardware design is easy to copy. But the OS and apps can't be mashed up quickly. The OS needs to be developed over time, 3rd party developers need to be brought up to speed on the new OS features, they need to get experience building apps for the OS and its frameworks.
And that's just the easy part of the software side of the equation. It's extremely hard and time-consuming to build your own software delivery and media e-commerce infrastructure. It took Apple about a decade of relentless work. And it's paid off hugely. The success of iPod, iPhone, and iPad that you mention is largely due to that infrastructure.
And that infrastructure is about to pay off even more for Apple. Because they can leverage it to help make their television project a success. All the pieces are in place now, from basic TV control (Siri) to apps instead of TV channels (if Apple even wants to present users with a traditional screen-full-of-icons), to iOS running on the circuit board inside the TV chassis, to iTunes for renting and purchasing content, to video mirroring from iOS devices for gaming, to deals with the movie and TV studios, to component deals with their hardware suppliers, etc.
It's all there, and if it's not completely there now, its just a matter of time. The whole TV industry, from TV sets to cable boxes to satellite receivers to DVRs to commercials to networks, is the current "old previous big thing" that needs to be revolutionized. Idiotic ideas like 3D TVs and massive multi-room DVR systems (TiVo Premiere) are signs that the old system needs to be evolved out of the past. The problem is that there's so much inertia and the major players are so deeply entrenched that it could take decades to change things.
Good grief. They reported $80+ billion in revenue in their year end this past March. Their operating income was just shy of $2.5 billion. Yeah, stuff that nobody buys anymore...
I'm confused. Many of the other companies have probably been making TVs for decades, yet as soon as a rumour surfaces that Apple might be producing a TV, these companies are also rans and followers?
Sony rose in revenue this year with $86.64 billion. Not sure if you're serious.
Source: http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/IR/financial/fr/09q4_sony.pdf
Honestly, HDMI-CEC sounds woefully inadequate to me. The commands center around a bunch of devices cooperating in some rather clumsy ways, whereas in order to achieve an Apple-esque user experience the monitor would have to publish a complete API that would allow a controlling device to do absolutely anything without having to display whatever god-awful on-screen menus the monitor manufacturer concocted. I have an HDMI-CEC implementation at home (Samsung's Anynet+, implemented both by my TV and my Blu-Ray player) and I still end up needing to keep track of both remotes because of the incompleteness and inconsistencies of trying to get by with using just one of them.
Whatever Apple releases I'm sure its going to be hampered by the movie industry, which really are the bad guys when it comes to advancing TV. They like living in the past.
This is exciting.
Also, I think this project is Apple's chance to prove whether it can succeed without Steve Jobs.
Also, I think this project is Apple's chance to prove whether it can succeed without Steve Jobs.
With the exception of the bolded, how is that different from anything you can do with TV now?
Of course there's still work to be done with the integration, but there's really nothing revolutionary there. And aside from having a built in camera, I would think most of those features would work perfectly fine through a box like the current Apple TV.
Apple is going to make a killing with the TV, just think about it, a slim streamlined tv with the typical metal of your macs, gorilla glass display? High quality OLED screen technology with the Apple A6 chip in it, enhanced siri functionality and most likely some sort of sensor like kinect where you can just swipe, touch, whatever you want to flip through channels, pull up the guide etc all without touching the screen, you would be doing this all by just sitting on the couch and swiping your finger etc.
Also a new product in the iOS ecosystem so they can start developing apps for the TV and you could play angry birds by just swiping your finger, pull up netflix, weather, any app really. Also safari on the TV and scrolling and pinch to zoom you would do in the air. And all this with the A6 chip everything will fly and be so snappy.
Itll probally be pretty expensive for a TV but if they have all of this in a TV? Then apple has revolutionized another product again.
Also a new product in the iOS ecosystem so they can start developing apps for the TV and you could play angry birds by just swiping your finger, pull up netflix, weather, any app really. Also safari on the TV and scrolling and pinch to zoom you would do in the air. And all this with the A6 chip everything will fly and be so snappy.
Itll probally be pretty expensive for a TV but if they have all of this in a TV? Then apple has revolutionized another product again.