Let’s face facts: Apple’s newly-launched iPhone 5 and iPad mini were two of the industry’s worst-kept secrets. In fact, both product unveilings proved to be, well, anticlimactic largely because of all the industry rumors and leaked info and photos
that preceded them. This is especially true for techies who followed all
the prerelease hype, which resulted in a sense of déjà vu when Apple
CEO Tim Cook took the wraps off these products.
Bottom line: We already knew what Apple's latest smartphone and pint-sized tablet looked like and what they can do.
But Apple's iTV is a different story altogether.
Not much is known about the alleged smart television the late Apple cofounder Steve Jobs was quoted about in Walter Isaacson's best-selling biography.
"I'd like to create an integrated television set that is completely
easy to use," said Jobs. "It would be seamlessly synched with all of
your devices and with iCloud. It will have the simplest user interface
you could imagine. I finally cracked it."
But as we say goodbye to 2012 – Apple's most prolific year when it
comes to product launches – and set our sights on 2013, the following is
a round-up of the latest buzz surrounding iTV (or whatever it'll be
called).
Is iTV really in the works?
Yes. Aside from Jobs' assertion he "cracked" the television user
interface problem, but Apple's Cook has all but confirmed it's on
the roadmap. In an interview with NBC earlier this month, Cook said an
Apple TV is "an intense area of interest" and he compared the current
living room television experience to going "backwards in time by 20 to
30 years." Even back in May, when Cook chatted with AllThingsD at their DX conference
for about 90 minutes, he hinted about an iTV project. When asked
producing a set-top box and companies like Sharp handling TV panel
production, he answered rhetorically "Can we make a significant
contribution far beyond what others have done in this area? Can we make a
product that we all want?"
When's it coming?
According to this report
from Focus Taiwan, an inside source says Apple's first television won't
be available until "the end of next year," with a possible debut at the
Consumer Electronics Show the following January (2014). While the
timing may be accurate, Apple never takes part in the annual CES
spectacle in Las Vegas, so this part of the tip is a bit suspect. Other reports
suggest we won't see an Apple-branded television before the year 2014
altogether. Is that too late? Some analysts believe so; as for how
critical the timing could be, see below, under "How important is it?"
Where is it being made, tested?
In the same Dec. 19 article published by Focus Taiwan, testing of
Apple's iTV has already begun at Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. (a.k.a.
Foxconn) in New Taipei City, citing an "insider" at the factory. This
isn't the first time news leaked about the development of Apple's iTV:
In May, Terry Gou -- the head of Foxconn -- slipped the news during a
Shanghai press conference about it "making preparations for iTV, Apple's
Inc.'s rumored upcoming high-definition television," reported China Daily. A week later, however, the company quickly refuted that information, saying it was "not accurate."
By the way, Foxconn is the world's largest maker of electronic
components and manufacturer of the Apple iPhone and iPad, among other
products like Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii and Amazon Kindle.
How big will it be?
Foxconn is currently testing early television prototypes with screens ranging between 46 and 55 inches, says BGR
in a recent article, which references a Wall Street Journal finding.
The same WSJ piece also says its sources confirm Apple is working with
Sharp to design the TV, plus Sharp is also said to be supplying the
display panels for it. Focus Taiwan also reports Foxconn is currently
testing TV prototypes up to 55 inches. Will it have a retina screen,
comparable to what's found in the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and MacBook
Pro? Not likely, says Trip Chowdhry, managing director of Equity
Research at Global Equities Research, in an interview with Forbes, as a 50-inch television with a Retina display technology would cost about $25,000 today.
What can it do?
What Apple's own HDTV can do is likely the most shrouded of all
secrets -- and something you won't find much info on online from other
sources either. Some of the buzz predicts users will have access to an
App Store, to customize the television experience with software and
on-demand services, plus there's also iCloud integration to tie content
to multiple devices. On iCloud support, Gene Munster, managing director
and senior research analyst at Piper Jaffray, said this in a research note:
"While a solution for live TV combined with previously aired shows
'recorded' in the cloud remains a significant hurdle, perhaps this code
is precisely what Jobs believed he has 'cracked.' Other rumors suggest
Apple's TV will also have a built-in camera for FaceTime video calls and
will include support for the voice-activated Siri,
which is now bundled in many of its iOS products. "We also believe
Apple could use Siri, its voice recognition, personal assistant
technology to bolster its TV offering and simplify the chore of
inputting information like show titles, or actor names, into a TV
(typically with a remote)," adds Jaffray. Given Apple's focus on design,
its iTV will also likely be super slim and boast a minimalist look.
How important is it?
Very, insist some analysts. A recent BGR article
that quotes exports suggests Apple "needs to launch the Next Big Thing
in order to reverse investors’ soured sentiment." BGR quotes Barclays
Capital analyst Ben Reitzes, who predicts that Next Big Thing could be
Apple’s iTV, but if the WSJ information is correct – that It won't even
launch in 2013 – then the fear is it will be too late to snap investor
out of their "recent funk." Shares of Apple stock have dropped as much
as 25 percent the last two month alone, from a high of $705.07, just
before the launch of iPhone 5. Reitzes says Apple "just needs to launch
the Next Big Thing to remind investors why it is the most successful
consumer electronics company in the world." At the time of writing this,
Apple's stock price is at $525.70.
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