Apple to offer own-brand HDTV, claims analyst

Shares?

Has anyone checked if this chap has shares in Apple?

There seems to be an awful lot of anal-ysts just saying whatever they imagine 'might' happen in a few years these days.

Presumably...

It'll cost £10k, have half the features that other TVs have, only allow pple approved channels, and blow up in your face if you look at it wrong.

give me...

an apple tv box with twin freeview tuners and i'm there.

come on apple, get the freeview licence and do it. my humax 9200 is still one of my best purchases, but linking this with the itunes store would be superb!

Why?

There is no doubt Apple could turn out stunning TV sets. It is a super-crowded market though, full of firmly established brands catering to all possible consumer needs already. I would much rather believe in improvements to the existing AppleTV. As an add-on device, it offers all the "improved interface" benefits complete with syncy bells and whistles while still allowing you to choose whatever screen you like. But then I'm not an analyst, and I don't get paid for crystal-balling my way into the weekend.

AppleTV v3 -v- NextGen iMac

Presumably this will be an integration of the current AppleTV functionality with a big LED/LCD display: an all in one unit that has a glossy full HD display in 32" to 42" sizes with integrated computer running a version of Snow Leopard on a 160/240GB HDD to which you can buy/rent media from the iTunes Store, accessed through a dedicated UI and simplified remote.

Or, to put it another way, a whopping big iMac that only runs Front Row.

Sounds OK, as long as the price point is reasonably comparable with the separates option. And you can add an external HDD - AppleTV only starts getting fun once you have a terabyte drive (200 movies and 500 TV episodes is a great thing to have to hand without digging through DVD boxes).

it'll only burst into flames

Apple - shit by design

*Wades Through Anti-Apple-'tards*

Boring anti-Apple tirades aside, this "analyst" is pulling theories out of the air based on Apple stating that they will continue to invest in Apple TV. Munster talks out of his arse, and this is no different.

can i have some of what he was smoking

Gene Munster's track record isn't exactly great.

http://guides.macrumors.com/Gene_Munster_%28Analyst%29

he's been right a few times, when he forecasts have been vauge enough

he's been wrong a few times

and sometimes he's been a bit right, and a bit wrong

those sort of odds smack of someone picking ideas out of the air at random

i can't believe these guys get paid for this rubbish and more so, i can't believe El Reg is reporting this guys random guesswork as fact

Analysts have a poor track record

These analysts never get it right. Expect a revised forecast before long.

ah, but yes, but no?

well if they call it the iTV they would have a branding issue in the UK due that being the overall banner for the commerical networks!? Although upon recent performance Apple could probably buy ITV for a few greenbacks!?

as for the remote they wont sell you a remote, youll have to sign up for an iphone contract and then down loaf the ITV channel changing app, then the volume control app, the iTV schedule app etc.....

and whats with people still putting up with 160/240GB HDD capacties?

if its going to store you vast "media" collection it will need to be larger than this, unless of course this is just a temporary cache as you wont own everything you will just be "renting" it from the i-library?

i am sure it will look great however!

however, not sure how they could improve the userinteraction above and beyond the fairly mature moredl for TV usage? (hint: multi gesture control via touch screen isnt going to work on your 42 inches?)

as for pricing..... if its in Sony price range it will sell, if its in B+O price range surely even the fanbois would think twice? (or work out which grandmother to sell first?)

apple tv box with twin freeview tuners??

@richard69

Google eyeTV wouldja.

Yes, it needs an external machine (I have a wee Mac Mini), but that has the benefit of being able to link up a *much* bigger external HDD that you'll need if you're recording and keeping any reasonable volume of TV.

My setup: http://www.flickr.com/photos/martinb/2288928033/

Could work

My missus would not dream of running Media Center, Front Row etc, as all the buttons, menus, inputs, outputs etc would scare her. However, as she always says, I can install whatever tech I want so long as she can simply switch on and watch Eastenders etc with no fuss. She likes her iphone more than her previous phones, because she "doesn't have to be a geek to be able to use the thing to access the internet". I think Apple would be the right guys to pull this off in a way that non-tech people like my wife would appreciate. Apple know that the likes of me would buy it, on the basis that I'll be able to configure it to do cool stuff, and my wife will still be able to do simple stuff.

Go for it, Jobs!

Hmm, sounds good!

At first I thought: ugh! No go! No way! but am warming to the idea.

DVR accessible via Mobile Me, stuff via iTunes, ...

But I am still of the view that a decent set top box (c'mon happel?) will do the business just as well with wider appeal.

You an only watch stuff on the iTune channel

and you can't watch your stuff on any other TV. It also looks and sounds inferior ro everyone else's TV's

Heard it before

Jason Calacanis talked about this almost a year ago, so this isn't exactly news.

http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/natelanxon/0,139102300,49299275,00.htm

Calacanis: Apple to release networked HDTVs

...Love him or hate him, the bloke's got contacts, and he confirmed to me that he knew first-hand that Apple was working on a networked television. These LCD HDTVs will be fully networked, with the ability to stream all your iTunes content from your Mac or PC. In fact, Calacanis told me they'll function like a standard TV with an Apple TV box, only without the need for the box.

erm....

would this not just be an iMac with a HD screen, a couple of tuners, and frontrow or whatever installed?

bit of a generic leap to turn a computer into a TV... didn't they do this about a decade or so ago?

no doubt:-

1 - it'll be marketed as "the first"

2 - it'll be hailed as "the greatest"

3 - people in the street will be asking "why didn't anyone do this before?"

4 - everyone else will sigh dedgectedly.

5 - house prices will come down as the increase in thefts from propertys kick up a notch.

6 - 90% of those that have one, never actually use it to it's fullest extent. the technical equivilent of having your old VCR with the blinking 12:00.

paris, cos all it'll be good for is a fasion accessory, and probably just as flat.

Analysts...

Want to save a lot of $$$ in analyst salaries? Replace them with a very tiny PHP script...

foreach $imaginable_gadgets as $gadget {

printf("%s, analyst at %s, has predicted that Apple will offer a %s in %4d.",

random_name(),

random_institute(),

$gadget,

2009+rand(0,4)

);

}

A little cron job could take care to mail the output in a "Press Release" template, every five minutes or so...

With very little modification you could use this to create an "exploding iPod" report...:

$where = array("in my pants", "in my hand", "in bed");

$result = array("I lost an eye", "I'm scared of iPods now", "I can't wear socks any more");

$damages = pow(10, rand(5,9));

... and so on...

@Bilgepipe

Interesting choice of Icon I guess I don't need to read your post....I predict its full of bile.

I want!

There's another Apple product possibly coming out, with a feature set that hasn't been published because the device doesn't actually exist yet?

I want one now!

Not a TV, but...

Apple are more likely to offer a cable-box / PVR replacement than a full-blown TV. It's not a huge stretch of the imagination to say the Apple TV could head in that direction.

Of course, here in backwards-Blighty, you're not allowed to use a 3rd party box with your cable/satellite card** so such a device would be a no-go here.

** Are you listening, Competition Commission?

Dont forget:

Non replaceable power cord.

non standard connectors.

Wont show microsoft commercials.

Wont show topless anything.

Remote control

Kneejerkers above take note that Apple already provide a remote control as standard with all AppleTVs and iMacs (and maybe Mac Minis - can't remember). And iPhones/iPodTouches can be used as a remote out of the box.

Do at least *try* to pay attention at the back.

It wouldnt be hard.

Many >$1000 TVs and >$200 Stereo head units these days include some basic digital convergence stuff. My TV has USB and will display slideshows of pics. I was oogling a new Pioneer head unit that has an ethernet port on it.... The only way a HD DVR concept would work for such an imagined Apple TV would be if they had cable card functionality. Including the equivilant of an eye phone for the guts with a new tegra processing bundle (ala Zune HD), a large Hard Drive, maybe 2 cablecards, large OLED display would mean a huge premium over other devices, but some people would snap it up, but quick. I personally want they display to be limited. It should show images that I feed it and thats it......

Switch on and go..?

Worth pointing out that my 3-yo can operate our AppleTV, successfully picking Dora and Harry/Bucket of Dinosaurs from the 500 TV episodes we have available.

The interface is a bit different from Front Row, but not *very* different.

Fix the AppleTV!!

Said it all before but theres a ton of things they could do to improve the appletv unit. Leave TV making to other people.

Specific improvements would be:

- Media support for most video formats, etc out of the box (never going to happen because it allows you to not use itunes, etc)

- Integrate a Freeview TV tuner and allow it to record to the HDD.

- Allow archiving of the freeview content back through the ethernet/wireless to a computer.

- Make use of that USB port for external hard disks.

- Smallest hard disk should be 200GB+

If they did that they'd be on to a winner, but it will never happen. In the UK that product has been a complete fail. Of course they've done well in other areas, but if their understanding of the UK TV market is really non-existent.

Speculation is an understatement.

Speculation is an understatement for this article. The analyst's words are as if he was walking around in the factory and has seen the final product.

In other news

Gene Munster farted twice and told passer-bys that Apple would create a smell-a-rama POD in two years. (He is clearly pulling the other stuff out of his Arse - why not a few more.)

Yeah I want some of what that dude is smoking.

Pretty close

@Andy103

AppleTV already archives any content directly loaded to it (via iTunes store currently) back to the linked computer, wirelessly or via ethernet.

No-one (other than the tiniest of minorities) cares about formats - as long as it reliably records and plays back out of the box. 99.999% of the Sky+ owning population don't know or care what format that uses either.

Add your other 2 relatively simple things:

1) Connection of external drive (negates need for whacking huge internal drive)

2) Integrated DTV tuner (although you can *already* stick that on the linked computer - eyeTV for Macs is just a rebranded Hauppauge dongle with some scheduling + export to iTunes SW)

and it's there.

Here's how it goes.

1) Apple ship iTelly.

2) Sells like hot cakes.

3) iTunes video pwns the VOD market.

4) Sony, Toshiba etc. tweak their tellies to access iTunes video.

5) Apple move API goalposts to stop third parties poaching off iTunes.

6) The largest anticompetitive practice class action suit of all time from all the major consumer electronics manufacturers, with all the TV / Cable / Telecoms companies taking a brief, sues Apple into administration.

7) Apple relaunched as a computer company, divested of all the silly "non core business" stuff that got 'em into the shit in the first place.

They may be able to play silly B's with Palm, but some of these boys have deep pockets, big nasty legal teams and will be fighting for their very lives.......

In typical Apple tradition..

The remote will have one button.