Apple’s HDTV Will Be U.S. Only At Launch, Might Not Ship Until 2014 [Analyst]

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Whenever the Apple HDTV comes out, it’s going to need an array of slick media content partnerships to get off the ground. That’s one reason why Tim Cook might have been hobnobbing with Hollywood executives at a recent media conference, but these deals are tricky to strike, and take time.

According to analysts, that’s why the Apple HDTV might not launch until 2014… and when it does, it will be a U.S.-only launch.

Stuff.tv talked to Informa’s broadband content and online video analyst Giles Cottle, who said that it would be a “massive burden” to arrange the content deals necessary to launch a television set… one that could only be handled by a gradual rollout, starting in America, then eventually trickling to the rest of the world.

Why the U.S. first? Simply put, Apple already has its strongest content deals in this country. Consider the fact that the UK and Canada only just got iTunes Movies in the Cloud, about five months after the functionality launched in the States. It takes time for these deals to come to fruition.

As for the 2014 release date, that seems far-off to us, but it comes from J.P. Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz, who again argues that the negotiations with Hollywood to launch an Apple-branded HDTV that revolutionizes the television-watching experience is likely to be protracted and grueling.

Source: Stuff.tv

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