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Foxconn Reportedly Testing Designs for 46-55 Inch Apple Television Sets
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Building a TV still (to me) makes no sense. How often do people really buy them? Every 5-10 years (or whenever their old one breaks).
My house has 2 iPhone 5's and 2 4S's, yet out of the 3 tvs we have 2 are from 2007 and 1 is from 1995 LOL.
We have no intention of buying a new TV until either the 95 one breaks and I'm sure the 07's have a good 5-10 years left in them (they are plasma, so should last for a goooood while) whereas I bet the 4S's and 5's won't be used in the next 2 years (probably).
Even when 4k comes along I doubt many will upgrade until it's affordable (sub $1000) and their tv breaks.
Apple really needs to have some sort of EXCLUSIVE content locked to their set if they really want to get people to fork out for it.
Otherwise they are wasting time when they could just build a box that sits under it, which they already have proved they are very good at despite it being a hobby.
My house has 2 iPhone 5's and 2 4S's, yet out of the 3 tvs we have 2 are from 2007 and 1 is from 1995 LOL.
We have no intention of buying a new TV until either the 95 one breaks and I'm sure the 07's have a good 5-10 years left in them (they are plasma, so should last for a goooood while) whereas I bet the 4S's and 5's won't be used in the next 2 years (probably).
Even when 4k comes along I doubt many will upgrade until it's affordable (sub $1000) and their tv breaks.
Apple really needs to have some sort of EXCLUSIVE content locked to their set if they really want to get people to fork out for it.
Otherwise they are wasting time when they could just build a box that sits under it, which they already have proved they are very good at despite it being a hobby.
Everyone eventually replaces their TV, otherwise electronics stores wouldn't be so full of TV sets. There obviously is a market for TV sets, and if Apple has a good enough offering that differentiates it from the rest of the pack, then it will be sold.
Apple could surprise us and build a series of fantastic 4K displays w/ multiple HDMI inputs / 1 HDMI output (surround sound AV receiver output) and with a hidden dock for an AppleTV box that could be upgraded when needed/wanted...
I'm quite intrigued as to which company will be supplying the panels. If it's a 55" Panasonic plasma in there then I'll be very, very interested.
Although to be fair, it's probably more likely going to be one of LG's backlit super thin LED LCDs....
Although to be fair, it's probably more likely going to be one of LG's backlit super thin LED LCDs....
MacRumors is clearly not an AV crowd. Very few people here seem to care about picture quality. Having said that, I'm gonna guess that 90+% of the population who owns a 1080p set don't even see it at its best. Bluray still offer the best picture and sound, but most are content watching SD material on their HD set.
I am curious what Apple will offer in terms of PQ, first and foremost, followed by connectivity and how it will interact with iDevices and computers.
I am curious what Apple will offer in terms of PQ, first and foremost, followed by connectivity and how it will interact with iDevices and computers.
I'm quite intrigued as to which company will be supplying the panels. If it's a 55" Panasonic plasma in there then I'll be very, very interested.
Panasonic is getting out of the plasma business. I have a panasonic plasma at home and they are fantastic. Too bad..
Other than a few mundane references to 4K, I'm not seeing anyone mention the obvious:
Apple is now in the habit of dumping BILLION$$$ into creating whole new factories and supply chains, even if that means giving the money to other companies. "Retina" displays were the result of pouring cash into making the future happen NOW. Instead of just a nice LED HDTV, or maybe a "yeah the industry is creeping that direction" 4K, why not consider something "outlandish" yet doable with a very big check: say, 8K OLED up to "very large". Content? it will come. State of the art? doable. The basics are in place with "retina": just make bigger panels. Heck, the basic technology is here for an 18k x 10k screen at 80", it's just a matter of improving reliability and decreasing cost of making a "retina" screen that big (and data bandwidth, also solvable). We've got 70" screens going for under $2000 now, something inconceivable just a few years ago.
So...what if Apple throws $10B at a new factory dedicated to $2000 80" retina displays?
Apple is now in the habit of dumping BILLION$$$ into creating whole new factories and supply chains, even if that means giving the money to other companies. "Retina" displays were the result of
pouring cash into making the future happen NOW. Instead of just a nice LED HDTV, or maybe a "yeah the industry is creeping that direction" 4K, why not consider something "outlandish" yet doable with a very big check: say, 8K OLED up to "very large". Content? it will come. State of the art? doable. The basics are in place with "retina": just make bigger panels. Heck, the basic technology is here for an 18k x 10k screen at 80", it's just a matter of improving reliability and decreasing cost of making a "retina" screen that big (and data bandwidth, also solvable). We've got 70" screens going for under $2000 now, something inconceivable just a few years ago. So...what if Apple throws $10B at a new factory dedicated to $2000 80" retina displays?
I'm not so sure. By now we have seen that Apple has some of the best market analysts working for them. Look at the iPad mini. Everyone said it was us$ 100 too high in price. I tried to buy one this weekend and it was sold out everywhere including the Apple Store itself.
If Apple introduces a TV set, we can be sure that it will be sold and that it will be priced on a premium level that still commands enough demand and margin.
46-55" is the market sweetspot. High end enough to allow the 'apple Value Added Tax' to be blended in without much impact, and still in the 'affordable' range for the family with some discretionary income to integrate into a total iOS/icloud world.
Think of this as the same pricing model as the MacBook Air/Pro/Retina. Why try to compete in the morass of $400 laptops, or in the $5000 server market.
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yep, and LEDs are a simpler technology and will scale downward in prices farther and faster, are lighter (shipping costs matter), and more energy efficient. Plasma is like Vinyl LPs vs CDs/MP3s... it's better sounding, but in the end, price and convenience wins out.
i'm interested.
i have an LG smart tv and while the picture quality is pretty good. several things on it have failed or never worked. like the hdmi inputs don't have any sound and i can't hook up any of my macs to it via hdmi.
tv's have always had some shortcoming that makes a/v setups less than ideal and i'm curious as to what apple would do to improved on them, if at all.
if they can circumvent hdmi, i'd be all up for it. i absolutely hate it with it's handshakes, and version and what nots.
i have an LG smart tv and while the picture quality is pretty good. several things on it have failed or never worked. like the hdmi inputs don't have any sound and i can't hook up any of my macs to it via hdmi.
tv's have always had some shortcoming that makes a/v setups less than ideal and i'm curious as to what apple would do to improved on them, if at all.
if they can circumvent hdmi, i'd be all up for it. i absolutely hate it with it's handshakes, and version and what nots.
A better way of saying this is: Apple's entry into a market will have enough 'value' to drive sales at the price point. And Apple has been driving technical integration that just works in an non-technical convenient manner.
The key item here is... convenience. My wife and I just got a new 47" TV, as she broke the cable connector (.05 piece) on our 5 year old 37". We still have the 3 remote problem, and is always on the edge of throwing one of the remotes at me or the TV (last night it was sound).
An Apple Built TV would be ideally a 1 (7 buttons: power, menu, up/down left/right, and select) remote solution (switched power to the sound system, ability to control sound with the single remote), but at the worst 2 (one for the sound system volume and sound processing).
1 remote, one menu for content/channels/DVR(yes, there still has to be DVR for people like me who like local newsprogramming (TcPT Almanac!!!!).
As bad as we hate iTunes now... it made owning an iPod easy. buy or burn, you plug in your iPod into your Mac and you had music synced on your device. Playlists just happened. No crazy symlinks, Unix directory structures, scripting to get your MP3 player to play a list of songs in the order you liked.
Whatever interface that is on the Apple TV device, it has to be that easy, or it will not capture the market, and it needs 20% market share to hit critical mass.
I'm sure the Networks are looking to get their products to as many people as possible that benefits them the best financially. But until Apple builds/buys their own delivery system, they must use the existing services to deliver the content. I don't see them building a cable/fiber optic system to cover the US, much less the rest of the world.
Prior to cell phones most people had 2 phones in their house and never replaced them.
Your 1995 TV set is probably 100 lbs too. TVs are often limited by where cable is.
Most your argument makes sense. I do think the key issue is that TV will be the first device that starts the rotation of Apple from HW centric to Content (or Experience) centric. Opposed to now, Apple is building out content to make the HW they sell more valuable.... this will be where they sell TVs at near cost to sell convenient access to Apple content and experience. It's the ultimate 'docking station' for iOS/iCloud.
Think of it another way... Once you get an iOS TV that makes it painless to slurp $2.99 episodes of Survivor and 1st run movies, you're locked into iOS devices throughout the life of that TV.
He better not!
If Apple goes to CES they might as well just announce WE ARE THE NEW MICROSOFT AND ARE NOW IRRELEVANT!
For the same reason you replace any Apple product: the new ones have better specs and features.
Your digital lifestyle will have 55-inch hole blown right through the middle of it unless you get the new Apple TV. And the next one after that...
In the past 48 months out of the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Apple has launched 34 satellites after a long series of secret negotiations with most countries, globally representing an asset of about 25,000 television channels. Among other already discussed features in the upcoming Apple TV like monitoring the viewers via hidden components (yes, the Walmart customers as well - as a special attraction!) an interactive map of the World will be one of the main menu feature, where you will be able to access all above channels at a low monthly fee of $0.99 per channel. Thus, it will allow you to watch German Sunday morning cartoons on Saturday night should you be in LA, a good Bangkok local porn, also at add hours, a Mongolian cook show, or just the ever important local news with an all day long report regarding a 7eleven robbery by an Armenian/Mexican couple. Just in case the project fails, well it won't change all that much as with todays content owning a TV set is just simply absurd.
I don't see that either.
Right now, figuring out what you have to do to receive free HDTV over the air is a pain in the arse. I do that myself, but so many people are scared of 'what do I do?', like what type of antenna do I use, how do I DVR content over the air? Do I need a special set-top box to receive HDTV? and so on.....
If Apple offered a simple solution to get just your over-the-air broadcast channels, in HDTV, and that will record them like a TiVO, at NO MONTHLY COST, then I think Apple TV can be a winner.
Of course, they would try and upsell you on all the Apple TV content like Netflix, Hulu Plus, or apps like games connected to the unit. You could do everything with no boxes attached to your TV, and only need internet through Verizon/Comcast for these extra features. But also allowing you to stream this content through your iPad or iPhone, and integrating with all of them would open this up to be a cool thing.
I don't necessarily think you're wrong about the crowd here, but I think the AV crowd is the wrong direction to look for an Apple television market. What I mean is that the people here talking about expensive sets and huge televisions are missing the point with Apple - those are products for niche markets, which I don't think Apple will pursue. They won't offer something to compete with the likes of B&O, they'll offer something to compete with Sony or Panasonic, but for more money with something special and uniquely Apple running inside differentiating it from the rest of the (commodity) market. They don't make high end products that appeal to enthusiasts, and this television has to appeal to a market large enough that they would be able to sell sufficient units such that deals were possible with the content owners.
Who said I was being practical or realistic? And in any case, I want the notion of 1080p as "Full HD" to die a horrible death.