Ive heard rumors that Apple might be entering the LCD TV market as early as this summer. With Apple long overdue for an overhaul of all of their monitors, it makes sense that Apple might have something up their sleeve in regards to full LCD televisions.

Obviously their angle would be to include AppleTV in their televisions, as one integrated unit since "no one likes set top boxes."

Has anyone heard anything regarding this rumor? Thanks!

[Yonzie]

http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2...12_000879.html

This one is easy: Apple will eventually announce all the products they were supposed to have announced at this week's MacWorld show, but didn't, including a bunch of media content deals, a huge expansion of .Mac to one TERABYTE per month of download capacity per user, a new version of the Front Row DVR application, and two new Intel Macs with huge plasma displays, but with keyboards and mice as options -- literally big-screen TVs that just happen to be computers, too.

That was january 2006. It's not going to happen.

[apple007]

I'm not sure I'd write that idea off so easily. With the Apple brand being as "in" as it is right now, and with Apple making more and more of an effort to dominate our living rooms, I could see them entering the TV market sooner rather than later. (It might not happen, but it doesn't seem as outlandish as it did a year or two ago.)

[Mugge]

If TV is the only innovation they have to offer in this field, then it's not going to happen. It would just dilute their brand.

When I asked about the TV market, I agree the face value question is limited in its potential. The real question is if Apple will decide to take all of their great products, and create the 'holy grail' of the personal technology market. That holy grail is a single product that will be the only thing in our living rooms. With it you can watch tv, switch to a fully functioning computer, play music through its surround sound speaker system, control the lightning and sound in any room in the house, even control kitchen appliances. The goal is for the consumer to have one item that they spend all t heir money on, one brand name to identify with, one company to be faithful towards. If ever there was a company that would be in-line with those ideals and consumer goals, it would be Apple. Its probably way off down the road, but not out of the question at all.

[Mugge]

Well, technically speaking you could almost do that with any Mac now. On the hardware side you would need to ad a TV tuner (and Bluray somehow). One of my friends has a Mac Mini, a Lacie HD, and a TV tuner hooked up to his HD TV, and it seems to work pretty well for him. He also got one of the new wireless keyboards and a beanbag so he can chill out in front of the TV when he's using it.

[jcoley2]

Didn't the Dell TVs hit the market about the time the stock peaked?

[zsummers]

Originally Posted by Mugge Well, technically speaking you could almost do that with any Mac now. On the hardware side you would need to ad a TV tuner (and Bluray somehow). One of my friends has a Mac Mini, a Lacie HD, and a TV tuner hooked up to his HD TV, and it seems to work pretty well for him. He also got one of the new wireless keyboards and a beanbag so he can chill out in front of the TV when he's using it.

Yeah. I use an old 20 inch iMac as my TV and media server. Wouldn't be much of a step to do the rest. A one stop software interface would be nice. iTunes/FrontRow is very close if you DVR your shows and push them to iTunes though. Not a great solution though.

Frankly, I don't see Apple entering the highly competitive LCD market where money is in volume alone, as I understand it. There are already well-established premium brands there. Apple's name wouldn't carry them very far.

[apple007]

Originally Posted by zsummers Frankly, I don't see Apple entering the highly competitive LCD market where money is in volume alone, as I understand it. There are already well-established premium brands there. Apple's name wouldn't carry them very far.

I'm not so sure about that latter statement. Apple, right now at least, has a huge number of customers who would line up to buy Apple-branded poop on a stick. I bet there's a relatively huge number of people who would love to watch a TV that has an Apple logo on it. (But, obviously, as with iPhone, iPod, etc., entering new markets is risky business, although something Apple seems to handle quite well.)

[zsummers]

The problem is that there are already premium names on the LCD market that would compete with Apple's--Sony and Sharp for instance. And given that the margins on LCDs are small, you would probably need to displace at least one of those players to make it worthwhile. It could probably be done. But only with a lot of effort. Apple would have to find a consistent supply of high quality panels for one--not an easy task. And it would have to give you some other feature to avoid being just another entrant. Full integration with iTunes might work, but that's pretty risky.

Maybe the fervor really is great enough though. I may underestimate the need for living room status symbols, but I don't think so.

Another problem for Apple is this: it seems like LCD-as-status works a lot like penis size--the bigger, the prouder (who cares who made it). And on that logic, 100" whatever > 90" Apple. Just my impression though.

[joveblue]

Apple Cinema Display + AppleTV

OR

iMac

is about as close as you're gonna get. "Watching TV" to Apple means buying TV shows from iTunes and watching them. The fact that you no longer need a computer to use your AppleTV makes it a lot more like Apple's answer to the TV.

Oh, and you'd need speakers for that first option too...

[Taskiss]

There was an Apple TV years ago... I don't think they're going down that road again any time soon. Display devices are pretty much commodity items these days, and I don't believe they'll enter that market unless they can offer something with a substantial difference in design quality than their competitors.

I'm kinda surprised they still sell monitors.

[Mac Donald]

Originally Posted by Taskiss I'm kinda surprised they still sell monitors.

They hardly are -- the Cinema Displays haven't been updated for a long time. It seems like before every Apple event, someone says that Cinema Displays with built-in iSights are going to come, and then they don't . . .

[JohnnyTheA]

Originally Posted by Mac Donald They hardly are -- the Cinema Displays haven't been updated for a long time. It seems like before every Apple event, someone says that Cinema Displays with built-in iSights are going to come, and then they don't . . .

If it is "just" a monitor, I'm not sure what else you can update than an iSight. Apple displays fill an important niche for people who want the best color reproduction. If you do photo or video processing with a Mac Pro or old Power Mac, then you probably have one. So as long as they sell the Mac Pro, the have to sell the monitors. I don't see how they can improve them... They are just monitors. The other thing is the resolution has to be pretty high for desktop monitors, but lower for TV-like ones. HDTV is only 1080 pixels high. So right now TVs and Apple monitors are naturally different beasts.

BUT, if they made even bigger versions of the iMac (32", 40")... That has been rumored as well. I use my old G4 mini with a 32" LCD TV and it works great both as a computer AND watching movies in iTunes. They don't have to do much more engineering to make a 32"/40" iMac that could be mounted on a wall.

If you look at most people's home TV setups. they have anywhere from 2-6 remotes to do everything they want to do. Apple could fix this. One simple box with a SINGLE remote, that does it all.

I think the problem is that to go all the way, you need to pipe TV in somehow. Because there are so many ways to get TV that makes it difficult. Vested interests won't want Apple allowing DVR capabilities without limits, OTA, cable-card crap, DirectTV receivers, HD, its a mess. I'd like to see them try though.

JTA

[Reid]

I don't really think they'd make one of these, but if they did, I'd probably buy one!

[Yonzie]

The development on the TV side of the fence seems significantly faster than the development on the computer monitor side. With the length of time Apple goes between refreshing products, they'd be selling outdated stuff 75% of the time...

Originally Posted by JohnnyTheA If it is "just" a monitor, I'm not sure what else you can update than an iSight.

Better specs like higher contrast and better color reproduction (Wider Gamut). And the iSight as you mention. The Mac Pro (and Mini) is kinda lonely with the iSight discontinued...

Originally Posted by JohnnyTheA I think the problem is that to go all the way, you need to pipe TV in somehow. Because there are so many ways to get TV that makes it difficult. Vested interests won't want Apple allowing DVR capabilities without limits, OTA, cable-card crap, DirectTV receivers, HD, its a mess.

QFT.

[Reid]

Originally Posted by Yonzie The development on the TV side of the fence seems significantly faster than the development on the computer monitor side. With the length of time Apple goes between refreshing products, they'd be selling outdated stuff 75% of the time...

While I agree with you, those remind me a great deal of the arguments that were made before Apple entered the phone market. The fact that most electronics companies refresh their product lines multiple times per year doesn't seem like a huge deterrent to me. It's not like people upgrade their TVs that often. In fact, the long purchase cycle of TVs is more of the argument I'd make against Apple's entry into the market.

Most people expect a TV to last them 5-10 years, which means it takes a long time for a new brand to gain significant penetration and share in that market. There's a reason there are only a handful of brands really competing in that space, compared to the market for small electronics like MP3 players. You can either compete on quality or on price, and the brands that compete on quality all have a long-established presence in the category.

If any company has the patience and unique vision to carve out a new space in that market, it's probably Apple, but at the price point we'd probably be talking about, an Apple Television entry would have the potential to be a huge money-losing flop, much more so than a little $200 set-top box. I just don't think it's a risk Apple would want to take.