For years now, a prominent analyst has predicted Apple will get into the high-definition TV business. While that makes about as much sense as my idea for an iToaster, the rumor is back again, this time piggy-backing on the iCloud.
“Apple’s iCloud service for media storage makes it easier to own multiple devices and share content among them,” Piper Jaffray senior research analyst Gene Munster opined to investors Thursday.
Along with storing music and pictures, Munster believes movies and TV shows could also use iCloud, “which could be viewed on a TV.” But an Apple-branded TV?
Earlier this week, another report (citing a “former Apple executive”) posited the advent of AirPlay could turn Apple TV from a hobby to another revenue source for the technology giant, by making the leap from set-top boxes to full-on HDTV sets. AirPlay – which allows iOS devices to stream content to other devices, such as printers and – could stream TV programming, as well. Although one can follow the logic, it is a bumpy road.
Unless Apple plans to get into the 72-inch 3D LCD high-definition sector of the industry, HDTVs are the most fractured, commoditized and competitive sector that exists. The Cupertino, Calif. company tends to prefer to control a segment, be it the MP3 market (with upwards of 80 percent of the digital music device market), or high-end computers, smartphones, and more.
Come September and the iCloud launches, we are likely to have a better idea of Apple’s intentions. There may be some movement to stream video content to televisions, but likely streaming to a non-Apple HDTV.
More likely, the rumors will continue that a prototype iTV is on the workbench just waiting to be unveiled… and we’ll be hearing this all again in a few months time. What do you think, though? Could there be any grain of truth to these constant reports, or do you think Apple’s path to the living room is through their $99 set-top boxes. Let us know in the comments.
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.
16 responses to “Apple HDTV Crazy Talk Continues, This Time With More iCloud”
This sounds like crap. The point of iCloud is to access your files anywhere, but mainly on-the-go. Who, in their right mind, would be carrying around a 56″ TV wishing they could hook it up to iCloud to stream the latest episode of The Office which is conveniently located on their home base station?
wirelessly mirroring your iPad apps on your HDTV via Apple TV in iOS 5 is the real breakthrough here. it solves the eternal clunky remote control problem of every TV and set top box – there is none! it instantly brings tens of thousands of apps to your TV. some will be really useful (many not). it makes web browsing on a TV easy for the first time ever. it can pump iCould stuff to your big screen, if that is ever useful. and then there is games …
this essentially turns ATV into an iPad accessory. that will become ATV’s prime use, and sell lots more iPads.
Apple only makes a few bucks profit on the $100 Apple TV. it might make sense for Apple to license it for installation inside other OEM”s TV’s for that amount. because it will sell more iPads. this might be the reason for some of the rumors.
but for Apple instead to sell its own brand of HTDV’s would not be as effective in selling iPads. far fewer consumers would get ATV that way and want to buy an iPad. so i really doubt this will happen.
Sony tried building Google TV into HDTV’s. a total flop. too complicated. and CATV is still way too important for the huge majority of consumers to bypass, as Google hoped.
OEM’s are trying to build their own apps/stores into HDTV’s – esp. Sony and Samsung. but they are utterly crude and tiny compared to what you can do mirroring the iPad on the same TV screen.
Once iOS 5 is released, i’m sure Apple is going to finally market ATV aggressively as part of iPad marketing. the TV ad is easy to imagine …
“it might make sense for Apple to license it for installation inside other OEM”s TV’s”
That’s exactly what they’ll do.
An upgraded Apple TV that can stream 1080p via an app like Air Video will mean that people can stream videos to their TV via Apple TV. Now that would be worth getting. For Apple it would mean that they are finally keeping up with the other set top boxes and would avoid licensing problems with Airplay TV’s.
Apple IS uniquely positioned to enter the TV market and that they will is a no brainer. The only question is whether it’s this year, next year, or the one after that. Arguments like this:
“HDTVs are the most fractured, commoditized and competitive sector that exists”
… sound very similar to the reasons many gave to argue that Apple would never enter or never succeed in the mobile phone market. With Apple’s platform, its content licenses, and its family of mobile devices, it could launch a TV that would be very different than anything that’s come before it and upend the industry.
. A television with the Apple brand would make sense, but I think the first step could be an update for current AppleTV.
. Making it compatible with traditional broadcast television [ like GoogleTV ], with an Apple-style interface, hyper-intuitive, able to stream with AirPlay to iOS devices and MacOS; Schedule Recording with the possibility of uploading to iCloud; Remote App…
. Would also be interesting the possibility to use an AppleTV without a television, streaming live and recorded content with AirPlay.. With this small update on the AppleTV, all Apple devices would become HDTVs … [;)]
*learning english #lol
disagree, aapl doesn’t need to resort to licensing software a la ibm and msft (save FC), they kill it in the consumer hardware space….still doubt we’ll be seeing an actual tv from them anytime soon
Apple has a (very successful) history of competing on a limited number of fronts. I don’t see them competing in a new one anytime soon. They’ve still got their hands full with Macs, iPods, iPads and iPhones. And the Apple TV has already let them enter the TV/Hi-Fi market without entering the TV/Hi-Fi market – if you know what I mean. The ATV has an optical connection which lets you deliver hi fidelity digital sound to the amp without watering it down with a cheap A/D converter. Beautiful.
Nope, the TV makes no sense at all.