Apple working on networked HDTV?
According to the C|Net UK's Nate Lanxon, Internet tabloid celebrity Jason Calcanis is going around the Valley telling people that Apple is about to get into the Networked HDTV business. Beyond the endorsement from Calcanis, who might just be seeking yet another avenue of self-promotion, it does make sense for Apple to be joining this very big market. They currently make large screen cinema displays, AppleTVs and all-in one units like the iMac. They also sell lots of TV shows and movies. Technologically speaking, Apple could probably put together a product in a three day weekend (or 30 seconds with some double sided tape, a cinema display, an Apple TV and a HDMI-DVI adapter)....the question is: is the market big enough to justify building it? Is it mature enough? Too mature? One would think that time is getting close.
Apple, under Steve Jobs, has always been the master of timing, bringing products out right at the cusp of technological maturity. The iPod and iPhone are perfect examples of this. When the technology made sense for a product that people would want to use, and not a moment before, Apple released something amazing. There were MP3 Players before the iPod and smartphones before the iPhone, but when Apple delivered the products, it changed the game.
Apple hasn't really had the same experience with AppleTV. While there are many compelling reasons to get one, it isn't a "must have". Yet. Perhaps if Apple innovated up the value chain making some heavy duty equipment with the ability to play videos (please Apple, acknowledge other file formats besides .mp4 and .mov) from a media server. Or just put a 1Tb drive in the AppleTV model of the HDTV and a H.264 encoder and let me have my way with my media library. Lots of possibilities here. From C|Net:
TVs are a huge market. What better way to extend the iTunes Store than by providing an elegant TV that seamlessly integrates with its movie and TV offerings? Apple Computer Inc dropped the 'Computer' for a reason, and I have no reason to doubt that this has been on the roadmap ever since.
Or is Calcanis just doing Apple rumors to satisfy his need to be like Kevin Rose (See Netscape vs. Digg)
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Comments (32)
I would buy an apple TV but I would want a 42 inch screen...
It would make sense building a true "Apple TV"! A HDTV with built-in Apple TV functionality! It would make for a very interesting and appealing product, if priced correctly!
I know that, if such product came out, I would buy it in an instant!
Nice Idea and it would be a great piece of hardware in my living room.
But last week I've bought an nice Panasonic Plasma...sorry Apple, in 8 years or so :-/
But an Apple TV would be a great expansion....but what's with the content in europe???
...
My Plasma TV lasted all of two years before it died. So if you're like me, you'll be in the market just in time for version 2 of Apple's TV offering!
Lesson learned: avoid spending too much on something that has a 12 month warranty.
About the content in europe... We don't have content!
:(
Exactly... There's no point in buying an Apple TV in Europe (outside of the U.K., France and Germany) because we don't have access to any movies (buying or renting) nor TV shows!
Apple really should make an effort to get some video content on European countries!
I'm from Portugal and I can't buy any movies or TV shows on iTunes...
but what would a 42" apple lcdtv cost ? too much Id bet, and besides, it'd be bound to go the same route as my appleTV and iPhone : ie needs to be hacked to get all the functionality required.
My question is will we be able to watch regular tv like from comcast or cox, or is this just for the Apple TV
Just a rumor, I'm sure, but an interesting one.
If they put OS X on it, they would have a platform for the future that no-one else could match, adding services, features, games, photos, music, iTunes, ...
I have often wondered if an iPhone-style interface with remote is a good match for TV.
I bet, in one move, Apple could create the home media center that those other bozos have failed at over a decade with their ugly platform.
( I'm assuming this would be a TV with tuners )
If they made it like the new Samsungs I would be in love, but knowing Apple it would probably cost $10,000. If they are able to put the computer in the TV like an imac and not make it look like an Apple silver monitor they would dominate the world!!!!!! But only if it's priced like a normal company would.....enough with the overpricing Apple (is the $15 billion you have in reserves not enough yet??)....especially while we're about to enter a recession. Buy or partner with Samsung and find a way to add OSX inside the TV. If you sell it cheap enough you can make up for it in all the itunes movies you'll sell.
At TV makes no sense to me. There are already a million companies making TVs. One with an Apple logo isn't going to make a bit of difference to me.
What Apple SHOULD do is turn the existing AppleTV product into something that's actually useful. Look beyond the "Scrape every penny from our customers" strategy and add the features that consumers actually want.
- Blu-Ray drive (Must)
- Stream from Media Server
- DVR recording
- View videos from Hulu.com
That would sell 1000x as many units as an actual TV.
Lots of people would like Apple to include DVR in the Apple TV, but why would they? They want you to buy a show from iTunes, not record it for free. They would be in competition with themselves.
I agree that Apple would most likely not want to include a DVR in the Apple TV. I've said that for a long time now.
However, I said in my original post that they should do what is right, and not just try to pinch us for every penny. The DVR falls under that caveat.
Remember, an iPod doesn't just pay music from iTunes. It will also play standard MP3s. Apple doesn't make money on that.
An Apple TV with a DVR would fall under the same category. It might not make Apple money directly, but it would sell more Apple TVs, so in the long run, Apple still wins.
The real AppleTV should be the current form factor, with Blu-Ray and DVR, at the very least. Add to that full Airport capability, and you have me hooked. For life.
Why? Because I have 1000s of DVDs, which I still want to watch. And I want to record things on the fly. As well as watching Apple content, but that's just one third of it.
If they're really clever, they can combine the Media drive of the MacBook Air, the Mac Mini, the Airport Extreme and the current AppleTV, all in one. The way it should be...
The market for flat panel displays is mature and margins have already been nearly completely wrung out of it. I don't see Apple wanting to get involved in a mature market that is already contracting. The ATV is already small enough that it can be attached to the back of some other manufacturer's TV, so, how much would Apple gain by integrating it into their own TV? Not enough to justify the costs of manufacturing and supporting such a radically different market segment.
Apple vertically integrates when there's something to be gained -- when controlling the hardware and software design is the only way to allow them to do something radically different and still ensure compatibility and reliability. There are some HDMI compatibility issues and resolution issues with the TV, but not enough to justify manufacturing their own displays.
That said, I would like to see Apple produce more CE devices, like an TV with Tru2Way cable cards built in and an on-screen display, an iTunes server and a rackmountable Maxi with PCI-e slots for users to add their own video and audio cards. Oh, and a 13.3" tablet with multi-touch for a remote control.
A TV with 4 HDMI jacks, Airport and a small flash drive would work. But it probably be too much for the average punter.
Good point about Euro content.
If Apple were serious about video distribution then the AppleTV needs to $100.
nice OLED screen with a 320 GB, 500GB and 1TB option would be nice. multiple sizes but only have the bigger sizes have the 1TB option. I could understand having OSX on it even in a stripped form only to play games. I would love a whole OS but they don't want to destroy computer sales with the iTV make it so all those mac games can be played on a big TV instead of a 24" computer, it would be a nice piece of comp. for the "games for windows". Maybe even sell wireless controllers that can sync with the TV to play games. They could try to take on multiple TV manufacturers and the 360, PS3, and Wii.
no no no... Apple doesn't build products like this. They tried wit hteh HiFi and look what a mistake that was. The TV market is WAY too established and competitive for Apple to do anything compelling.
Apple would want to provide the complete expereince, and they can't... slap on a cable box? Sat TV? DVD? PS3? It's simply not Apple style to accommodate all the devices people attach to their TVs.
FWIW, I still think "brick" is a double size iPod Touch that is optimized for movie viewing. Something you can shove in front of your brain dead kids in the back seat.
Just to get ahead of the game people will endlesse complain that there is #1 no way to wireless sync content to the device and #2 that the device has no remote or video out meaning you can't plug it into your TV and use it as an Apple TV...
They said the smart phone market was way to established for Apple and look, they sold 10 MILLION iPhone this quarter! So Apple has a way of getting into things and hitting the ground running...
I think the guy who commented on an HDTV run with Mac OS X as the OS has a great point. One thing that I would say for myself... I don't watch T.V. really... right now I have a 42 inch HDTV and I never turn it on too watch... that being said I would still lust after and apple branded one... apple just seems to have a way of doing that to me.
The TV biz is very competitive with a lot of innovation already. The internet integration out there does seem to suck right now - I've been looking for 50"+ tv's for 3 months and have been very unhappy with internet integration. But for Apple to do a TV+Internet seems a hard sell, especially when a TV should last 7+ years while such integration would be out-dated in 3 or 4 years. And the TV's I have seen have amazing picture quality. Apple's monitors are at least 2 years behind the times in terms of specifications (e.g., 14ms response!!) and price, and few seem to be buying them. Apple will need to come a long way on display features to find space on the display wall and far down in price to beat out the competition.
A home entertainment center from apple would be perfect but they need some essential things:
1) The Apple TV would need to be built into the LCD (the TV by apple) to minimize clutter
2) The Apple TV would have to get a huge upgrade in hard drive size
3) that huge hard drive will come in handy when they turn the Apple TV into a DVR (which wouldn't be too hard) and allow us to record multiple HD shows at once, or even get around the cable companies by striking a deal with the TV studios that we pay a monthly fee and get to download the TV shows (sort of like cable but you dont get live TV you just download the show as soon as it's on TV)
4) also enable the TV to work with every company, cox, time warner, ATT, etc so that everyone gets in on it. I have a feeling they would partner with ATT just because they already did with the Apple TV
5) Allow things like Wii and PS3 to be hooked up to the TV (like a normal TV)
6) Allow us to use our iphone/ipod touch to schedule shows etc from the phone while away form the house (could tie it in with mobile me)
A lot of things they would need to do but the biggest is the screen type itself, apple can be slow sometimes to upgrades and with how fast TVs change and are upgraded i'm wondering if apple would be able to deliver the best for a good price
It would be a right pain having to get off your ass to touch the screen to just change channels... so it's unlikely Apple will make a TV.
I would want it to do Recording from TV shows too.... I want the Apple TV boxes to do this...
All new Sony and Philips tv's are fitted with DNLA and UTP...
If only my MacBook Pro could communicate with DNLA :(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DLNA
Apple is not the consumer company that many seem to think they are or will be. It's really simple....Apple is nothing more than a hot, elite gadget company. They're not going to start coming out with tv's or anything like that unless they can truly make it stand out and it sell decent enough. The tv market is something that takes a whole different mindset than what Apple has. Not saying they won't do it eventually as perhaps they might have the special tech angle to do it but for now I don't see it happening.
As for dvr's I could see them updating AppleTV in some manner to allow for a 3rd party to add a product to make it a dvr but they, themselves, won't do it. Besides dvr's that are sold to the general audience are getting the life squeezed out of them. All content providers like Directv, Dish, Comcast, etc all have their own digital box solutions for video recording. It's next to impossible for a 3rd party to provide a dvr that works with such systems unless it's done in a "hack-like" manner where you're just feeding the video cable into the 3rd party box. Now you have to schedule to boxes to change channels to record scheduled shows and stuff...not the Apple way or really any company's way...support nightmare.
As for the network hdtv topic we'll find out soon enough. It wouldn't surprise me if we see it but I'm not convinced that it really means anything to most users...it's really something more for the media and techies to get excited about.
Apple has ALWAYS been the master of timing? Have we forgotten the Newton? ;)
Though in all fairness, if being ahead of your time is your worst problem as a company when rolling out new products, I'd say you're doing pretty well.
That's why we put in the Steve Jobs part ;)
For any computer company to be the HUB of consumer homes then it needs to control the centre. And that is the living room TV.
If Apple do produce a TV then it will be the first truly consumer Mac. It will have an integrated mic and camera.