Analyst: iTelevision ‘Only Logical Step’ For Apple

Ed Sutherland ()

(Photo: catchesthelight/flickr)

(Photo: catchesthelight/flickr)


Might your next television carry the familiar Apple logo? That’s the suggestion of one analyst who sees a Cupertino-branded TV as the next likely move beyond the iPod and iPhone.

“Apple’s fantastic abilility to create exceptionally user-friendly products could revolutionize TVs just like the iPhone changed the mobile phone market,” argued Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster.

Although Apple expressed its usual reticence about the comment, Munster said such a product would be the “only logical next step” for the company.

Munster points to a $500 million January deal inked with South Korea’s LG Display to provide “a massive amount of LCDs to Apple.”

Although Apple’s finance chief Peter Oppenheimer in July 2008 announced “a future product transition that I can’t discuss with you today,” most took the comment to indicate an upcoming refresh of an existing product.

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However, Munster feels a move into televisions meshes with Apple’s desire to “only move into a new market in which they can ‘solve a problem for consumers.’”

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About the author

Ed Sutherland

Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.

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  • CaryMG

    This is *fantastic* !

    *Finally* the device we’ve all been waiting for ….
    “IT”.
    You know — the wallscreen acesspoint to the world.
    And hopefully it’ll have the remote I’ve always dreamed of.
    Just a small stick with a trackball or trackpad — no buttons.
    All ops are done onscreen.
    Turn up the sound ?
    Click the VOLUME icon.
    Save a channel ?
    Click the SAVE THIS CHANNEL icon.
    And so on & so on.

    I always wonder why TVs don’t have a CPU/MPU/HDD in ‘em.
    How much space can a few chips add?

    And TVs with InterNet built-in are looked at as “specialty items” when now they should be the norm.

    I can just picture it ….

  • Bill Coleman

    Didn’t Dell get into, and later out of, the branded TV market? Should Apple repeat Dell’s mistakes?

  • yet another steve

    @Bill Coleman

    Apple can certainly succeed in markets where Dell fails. The point is do they add value and solve problems for consumers?

    The logic of AppleTV does seem to be that it should be a TV, not a set top box. At least as an option. All in One is in Apple’s DNA.

    Sort of an iPod with a REALLY BIG screen… a tv tuner, and no need to sync with a computer.