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Smart TV Adoption Growing Rapidly, Market Ripe for Apple iTV
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Don't worry. I am sure they will tack on live events for another low monthly fee at some point. I am pretty sure, once all is said and done, that we are going to be paying more to stream the same content that we once got with cable. The only people saving money will be the few who only care for maybe one, or two, streaming services.
There are only a few things that Apple could do to make a big difference. Al a cart channels would be one. Being able to download TV shows like podcasts would be another. Getting and saving TV shows over-the-air and through cable on a regular basis would also be good.
It also has to do what the current one does with being able to access your music and photos.
iPhone and iPad control and interaction would have to just work.
YouTube and other internet videos would have to be easily accessible. Streaming videos and pre-downloading the entire thing would have to work.
It also has to be able to display your laptop on the big screen too.
It also has to do what the current one does with being able to access your music and photos.
iPhone and iPad control and interaction would have to just work.
YouTube and other internet videos would have to be easily accessible. Streaming videos and pre-downloading the entire thing would have to work.
It also has to be able to display your laptop on the big screen too.
Apple: Hey ITV can we buy your name so we can use it for our TV?
ITV: No.
Apple: Pretty please? Here's a boatload of money!
ITV: No.
Apple: Not even if we give you two boatloads of money? And not just small boats, big stark-designed josboats-sized boats!
ITV: No.
Apple: Well then we'll sue you, you're not making computers or TVs, we're in a different market.
ITV: No.
Apple: WAhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
ITV: Still no.
Apple: Alright, no lawsuit, THREE boatloads of cash, free iPads and new secret iCar for every employee?
ITV: errr... ok, go on then.
Apple: Nah... actually we're going to call it the Apple BBC now!
ITV: No.
Apple: Pretty please? Here's a boatload of money!
ITV: No.
Apple: Not even if we give you two boatloads of money? And not just small boats, big stark-designed josboats-sized boats!
ITV: No.
Apple: Well then we'll sue you, you're not making computers or TVs, we're in a different market.
ITV: No.
Apple: WAhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
ITV: Still no.
Apple: Alright, no lawsuit, THREE boatloads of cash, free iPads and new secret iCar for every employee?
ITV: errr... ok, go on then.
Apple: Nah... actually we're going to call it the Apple BBC now!
You mean little ol' iTV..in little ol' Great Britain? The second largest TV network in the UK after the BBC? Launched 57 years ago..and they're going to sell the name to Apple? The arrogance of the US knows no bounds
Cable TV service is barely profitable for the cable companies (about 7.3% profit margin). In contrast, cable Internet is absurdly profitable (about 97% profit margins). So the cable providers will be JUST FINE.
Why would they make a 4K Ultra HD TV. It doesn't make any sense. You can't buy anything in 4K format on iTunes so that means you would have to buy a 4K Player and 4K disks. What? Apple wants to banish disks and certainly doesn't want you to leave their nice walled garden for your content. It makes no sense whatsoever.
A HD TV maybe yes. You can watch your iTunes HD content on it. But could they get away with 40% margins on a smart HD TV? Maybe I don't know, nobody else has managed it. Prices and margins are falling all the time in the TV market.
Personally I don't think they will go that way. I think the Apple TV will simply be a flat panel display with a built in Apple TV box. I think they will go after the secondary TV market - TVs in your bedroom, kitchen, kids bedroom, etc. Make it so easy to connect your iPod/iPhone/iPad to it. Simply swipe and hey presto you are watching that film in bed. Make it priced so that you could have one in every room. Want to play a game in the kids room - use your iPhone/iPod as the controller and the iTV or iPanel as your monitor.
A HD TV maybe yes. You can watch your iTunes HD content on it. But could they get away with 40% margins on a smart HD TV? Maybe I don't know, nobody else has managed it. Prices and margins are falling all the time in the TV market.
Personally I don't think they will go that way. I think the Apple TV will simply be a flat panel display with a built in Apple TV box. I think they will go after the secondary TV market - TVs in your bedroom, kitchen, kids bedroom, etc. Make it so easy to connect your iPod/iPhone/iPad to it. Simply swipe and hey presto you are watching that film in bed. Make it priced so that you could have one in every room. Want to play a game in the kids room - use your iPhone/iPod as the controller and the iTV or iPanel as your monitor.
Until either a single company can get all of the content providers to work together with interoperability with a single app - or - all of the apps are available on a single device the market will continue to be fragmented.
You can't get everything on Netflix, you have to get Amazon, Hulu Plus, HBO Go in addition. And you can't get all of those apps on the same device. So until someone can pull all of this together, there are going to be unserved members of the market. I am not going to subscribed to all of the different devices and services to watch one or two shows every month.
You can't get everything on Netflix, you have to get Amazon, Hulu Plus, HBO Go in addition. And you can't get all of those apps on the same device. So until someone can pull all of this together, there are going to be unserved members of the market. I am not going to subscribed to all of the different devices and services to watch one or two shows every month.
My DirecTV DVR died last night. So I spent the eventing with the Apple TV3. What I came away with is that a lot of what I would watch can be found using the Atv and I found a lot of stuff to watch that I might watch. However, it seemed as though I spent the evening looking for content. I don't want to surf all evening to find a handful of shows.
Here's what would make it for me: a search engine that would find a show I was interested in watching and tell me where to find it (Hulu+, Amazon, Netflix, some website, etc) and present it to me as a simple list of links.
Also, I need local channel content (I am too far away for OTA broadcasts), that would probably take care of 75% of what I watch.
I just got overwhelmed with the amount of "stuff" out there and trying to find something to watch. Finally, I went upstairs and watch tv on my other DirecTV DVR.
So just give me a good interface find what I want to watch, maybe a notification that some new episode of a "favorite" was available for viewing and maybe a little more choice for local content. Do that, and I dump DirecTV.
Here's what would make it for me: a search engine that would find a show I was interested in watching and tell me where to find it (Hulu+, Amazon, Netflix, some website, etc) and present it to me as a simple list of links.
Also, I need local channel content (I am too far away for OTA broadcasts), that would probably take care of 75% of what I watch.
I just got overwhelmed with the amount of "stuff" out there and trying to find something to watch. Finally, I went upstairs and watch tv on my other DirecTV DVR.
So just give me a good interface find what I want to watch, maybe a notification that some new episode of a "favorite" was available for viewing and maybe a little more choice for local content. Do that, and I dump DirecTV.
My "smart" TV is used as a TV. The "smart" functionality is provided by the AppleTV connected to it.
The "smart" functionality built in to the TV is ridiculously inept, ugly, and counterintuitive. Even such basics as streaming from Netflix or simply plugging in a flash memory card to view photos is unbelievably complex and frightfully ugly.
Step One in creating a truly remarkable device would be to simply present the available information in an intuitive fashion. There are a lot of steps after that, but I have yet to see a TV with that first step taken.
A couple set-top devices like the ATV do a good job. Time for them to take Steps Two thru Ten and get this industry turned on its head.
The "smart" functionality built in to the TV is ridiculously inept, ugly, and counterintuitive. Even such basics as streaming from Netflix or simply plugging in a flash memory card to view photos is unbelievably complex and frightfully ugly.
Step One in creating a truly remarkable device would be to simply present the available information in an intuitive fashion. There are a lot of steps after that, but I have yet to see a TV with that first step taken.
A couple set-top devices like the ATV do a good job. Time for them to take Steps Two thru Ten and get this industry turned on its head.
To me, it's just so shortsighted for Apple to try to make an actual TV set instead of making a box that could be renewed every year/every other year. TV set margins are razor thin and smart TVs are nothing new. A new UI with apps would seem to be much more flexible than a TV that doesn't get renewed more than once every 5-10 years.
Another issue is the bandwidth required to support 4K. With data caps become more common, people will be receiving the dreaded letters saying that they have exceeded the cap and are being disconnected. Until better compression is developed, 4K may not be viable except for limited events anyway. Maybe it should be selectable.
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I fully agree with you. The TV should just be a monitor with the best picture quality available. Let the interface to the content be done with another box that interfaces the internet, satellite, OTA and gives me a smart interface to select what I want to watch or record.
I produce content in 4K, shot on RED EPIC. I also like to be future-proof. Got a problem with that?
Ironically, I was part of a film crew today that shot 5K on a RED EPIC. All these folks not even in the biz use "4K" as a buzzword on forums. Sony is already thinking 8K.
That's interesting. I wonder if cable Internet will become even MORE profitable? By the way, how do you know those profit margins?
my apple tv is more usable than my samsung smart tv.
Apple I think want to get the jump on samsungs etc by coming out with a box that works how i think and many people think a smart tv should work.
It's a real shame that the tech is there for a truly amazing tv experience yet we are still left with the shambolic offerings available. I still don't get how no one has been able to get TV companies to play ball and look at a content model that breaks the idiocy of channels and cable and all the crap that comes with someone dictating your content based on lowest common denominator programming.
I hope apple is not going to enter the panel market as that is a crooks game where you can only loose money but more of a software/apps side that could blow the competition away.
Hell it's almost worth apple just doing a TV so they can show exactly how to make a remote control that doesn't have a million useless buttons that all kinda do the same thing, samsung i'm looking at you with your stupid, back, return, exit, menu etc etc buttons that make zero sense.
The apple TV is a glimpse at what could be a genius product but how in the hell do you package it to get a consumer to buy into a panel or a box for that matter. This is more the stumbling block apple is working on.
I hope an iTV with better features is due but not in a panel only form that would really kill it at step one.
Apple I think want to get the jump on samsungs etc by coming out with a box that works how i think and many people think a smart tv should work.
It's a real shame that the tech is there for a truly amazing tv experience yet we are still left with the shambolic offerings available. I still don't get how no one has been able to get TV companies to play ball and look at a content model that breaks the idiocy of channels and cable and all the crap that comes with someone dictating your content based on lowest common denominator programming.
I hope apple is not going to enter the panel market as that is a crooks game where you can only loose money but more of a software/apps side that could blow the competition away.
Hell it's almost worth apple just doing a TV so they can show exactly how to make a remote control that doesn't have a million useless buttons that all kinda do the same thing, samsung i'm looking at you with your stupid, back, return, exit, menu etc etc buttons that make zero sense.
The apple TV is a glimpse at what could be a genius product but how in the hell do you package it to get a consumer to buy into a panel or a box for that matter. This is more the stumbling block apple is working on.
I hope an iTV with better features is due but not in a panel only form that would really kill it at step one.
Don't put it past them.
Seriously, though I'm not a huge fan of Google, I do believe that Google Fiber is going to be a disruptive force in this arena. Let's face it. Fewer and fewer people would buy cable television these days but for the "savings" of bundling, and the fact that internet is the most important utility (behind electricity, of course) to an ever growing number of users. If someone offers a fairly price alternative then Comcast can no longer artificially control the market.
Actually just noticed this whole article has been made up by the Mac Rumors staff? You guy's should be ashamed of yourselves for manipulating facts and figures to suit yourselves. was it really that much of a slow news day?
Just checking Panasonics range and all of them bar about 8 models are all smart TV's. So yeah, about those increasing smart TV sales.....
I think smart TV's are over complicated anyway and any Apple TV would be way overpriced. Useless for someone like my mum for instance.
But this is a bit of a article made up in Mac Rumors fantasy land it lives in hoping Apple will one day launch a smart TV, one day...
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Agreed. But Mac Rumors knows no bounds to this idea as they constantly uses the iTV name in the articles.
Just checking Panasonics range and all of them bar about 8 models are all smart TV's. So yeah, about those increasing smart TV sales.....
I think smart TV's are over complicated anyway and any Apple TV would be way overpriced. Useless for someone like my mum for instance.
But this is a bit of a article made up in Mac Rumors fantasy land it lives in hoping Apple will one day launch a smart TV, one day...
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You mean little ol' iTV..in little ol' Great Britain? The second largest TV network in the UK after the BBC? Launched 57 years ago..and they're going to sell the name to Apple? The arrogance of the US knows no bounds
Agreed. But Mac Rumors knows no bounds to this idea as they constantly uses the iTV name in the articles.
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Sony can think whatever they want. The only person likely to shoot anything in 8K legitimately in the next 3 years is James Cameron, and nobody will be able to see anything in 8K for another 5-10 years at least.
4K is the next consumer step. I just wrapped post on a commercial shot on RED this week, and we didn't have a 4K monitor to really test the footage on. We had to down-convert to 1080p, kind of a waste if you ask me, but I didn't make the call to shoot it in 4K. However the footage we contracted will be used for the next few years, so at least we got it "evergreened".
No one will pay 2x the price for their TV to make finding shows easier. Any mediocre or better GUI is adequate.
And why do you think Apple would do this anyway? My iPhone has Amazon, Netflix, YouTube, and iTunes. Can I ask Siri to find me "Justified Season 3 Episodes" and get a combined list from all the video providers? No.
When I last bought my sense was that for them to be useful one had to shop at the high end. My Sharp didn't have 3D crap or 240hz silliness, so the app foo is lesser. ISTR that the more expensive units had Skype, which would be simpler than hooking up a laptop.
iTunes changed the world. Now, it's a lot harder to come up with such a profound impact. The world is digital whether content creators like it or not.
They've surprised us before...
Give me a nice 4k display and leave out all the "smart" bloat that's in so many of Sammy's new TV's. same with the galaxy phones. Too many stupid, real world USELESS "features".
Of course "Smart" TV's are on the rise..Its because all the newer models are considered "smart". Most people buying TV's today are buying based on size and picture quality. Not because they are "smart".
Of course "Smart" TV's are on the rise..Its because all the newer models are considered "smart". Most people buying TV's today are buying based on size and picture quality. Not because they are "smart".
No, they keep doing it because it is short and they need a way to distinguish the concept of an actual Apple-branded TV from the AppleTV settop box without a two sentence headline.
Some people have figured that out now. And frankly, most of us don't give a damn what the name is, or about your network with that name.