Neil Hughes
Brian Blair of Wedge Partners issued a note to investors on Wednesday in which he said he believes Apple will eventually build a true television set in the future. But before that happens, he thinks the company will take a step in between, and add television functionality to its iMac desktop.
He expects that Apple will redesign its iMac lineup in the first half of 2012, and that TV capabilities will debut in that product before Apple builds a full television set. In this way, Apple could integrate its Apple TV software and iCloud features into a slim all-in-one PC.
"We think this makes sense because while we typically think about the newest TVs hanging on the wall in large form factors," Blair wrote, "Apple could effectively start with what they already have on the manufacturing line and slowly push their offering from 27 inches and scale up from there to 32 inches and then move on to the 42, 50 and 55 inch market."
Blair correctly predicted in September that Apple would introduce just one new iPhone model this year with a design largely the same as the iPhone 4. That forecast came at a time when a number of other analysts were suggesting Apple would release a new low-end iPhone model geared toward emerging markets like China.
Rumors of an Apple television have persisted since the release of the authorized biography of Steve Jobs. To biographer Walter Isaacson, Jobs hinted at a completely new product that would feature "the simplest user interface you could imagine."
That's led to reports claiming Apple plans to release a full television set at some point in 2012 featuring Siri voice recognition technology, allowing users to control their TV set without a remote. Rumors of an Apple television are said to have sent existing TV makers "scrambling" to find out just what Apple's plans are.
Bon Adamson
Wesley Hilliard
Christine McKee
Malcolm Owen
AppleInsider Staff
Amber Neely
72 Comments
No combadge, then ? later ....
I really hope apple is smart enough to work with cable companies like Cablevision. Cablevision is making its own downloadable securtity systems (the samsung box cablevision uses already has this).
Apple can work with cablevision and make it so that an Imac only needs a coaxial input and nothing else. This would eliminate the need for a cablecard.
1) iCloud is already featured in Macs.
2) AppleTV's UI was already featured in Macs as FrontRow. It was the trial the pre-dated the AppleTV. Since then FrontRow wasn't updated and fallen into obscurity. It's not even part of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion.
3) What's to gain from this unless you're putting it on all Macs because it's Apple working with networks to become a major distributor of content like the cable/sat companies? If it's just adding a tuner to the iMac then this is pretty tame and go against the speculation that Apple's HDTV will have no tuners or any other inputs whatsoever, just a connection to Apple's distribution network.
In other news, a street sweeper told a reporter he thought Apple would make new products and sell lots of them and that the price of Apple shares would go up as a result.
AI went wild at the news and featured the article claiming it was the most significant news in years and would be remembered for years as a milestone in Apple's history.
I really hope apple is smart enough to work with cable companies like Cablevision. Cablevision is making its own downloadable securtity systems (the samsung box cablevision uses already has this).
Apple can work with cablevision and make it so that an Imac only needs a coaxial input and nothing else. This would eliminate the need for a cablecard.
I think they have to go beyond the cable/sat companies. They have to ink similar deals that the cable/sat companies did with large upfront payments for large bundles of stations. They will become another competitor to your TV viewing the way satellite slow did against cable.
The downside is for those that have cable for internet. If Apple et al. are mildly successful then you'll be dropping your TV subscriptions and going with internet only plans from your cable company. Since they buy their content from networks in large sums they need to maintain enough TV subscribers to make the purchase worthwhile. As this number drops so will their profit until it becomes a loss. This means a renegotiations with the networks, a raise in internet costs, throttle of internet, and/or capping your usage. This change will happen eventually and it will be the ugliest paradigm shift we've ever seen in technology.