Apple LCD TV Rumors: Company Reportedly Testing Television Set (VIDEO)

Is Apple working on a smart LCD TV powered by iOS software?

According to a recent report by Venture Beat, "multiple sources in Silicon Valley" say yes.

Apple analyst Gene Munster told VentureBeat that an Apple TV could be ready by late 2012 or early 2013.

Furthermore, writes VentureBeat, "The price of LCD panels has droped fairly steadily, thanks to increased manufacturing efficiency, so eventually quality screens became cheap enough to make the 9.7-inch iPad economically feasible." If the trend continues, VentureBeat predicts that "15-inch or 19-inch touchscreen televisions running iOS" will hit shelves in the foreseeable future.

Apple has already released two generations of a set-top box, called Apple TV, which in its current iteration lets users purchase and stream content from iTunes, as well as access streaming services like Netflix, Flickr, YouTube, Vimeo and more. But a TV built on iOS would function more like an iPhone or an iPad, with access to the web, apps and more.

PCMag's John C. Dvorak says that demand may be high for an Apple-branded television set, despite Apple's current set-top offering.

"Every time I mention it to anyone, especially to younger people who seemed to have traded TV for Hulu altogether, they all say the same thing: 'If Apple built a TV, I'd buy it,'" writes Dvorak. "With the market the way it is, I think people would go nuts over a branded Apple television."

In June, an unnamed former Apple exec told DailyTech that the company was planning a television set with deep iTunes integration that would "blow Netflix and all those other guys away."

"You'll go into an Apple retail store and be able to walk out with a TV. It's perfect," the source said, according to DailyTech.

But not everyone thinks an Apple TV is on its way.

Gdgt's Ryan Block maintains that rumors about an Apple-made TV set are "highly unsubstantiated."

Writes Block:

TVs are very low frequency purchases, meaning if Apple built intelligence into the sets, their replacement cycles would be far longer than for lower cost consumer electronics (i.e. 5-10+ or more years on a $3,000 TV vs. 1-3 years on a $99 set-top-box). Talk about adding insult to injury: not only do TVs have low margins, people hardly ever buy them.

Blogger Erik Schwartz wrote that he is "quite confident" there will be no Apple-branded TV "in the near future."

"If Apple was raking in the money selling media at high margins it might make sense to ship a TV as a moat for the media business," Schwartz wrote in a post on his Tumblr blog, "but media sales via iTunes is a low margin moat to defend Apple’s high margin hardware business."

Quick Poll

Would you buy an Apple-branded LCD TV?

Yes!

Only if it is affordable.

No.

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Comments

[JackHoffman]

06:37 PM on 08/30/2011

I once popped the cherry and bought an Apple product thinking that all criticisms would be considered sour grapes but unfortunately I bought a lemon. Now, I feel just peachy about my new PC.

[JackHoffman]

06:25 PM on 08/30/2011

15-19 inches is a monitor.

[helioszephyr]

12:21 PM on 08/31/2011

the difference between a monitor and TV screen has blurred... they've pretty much become the same, in terms of HD.

[JosephTX]

01:47 PM on 08/30/2011

I give you the new 46" Apple TV*: Yours today for only $3,000!
*Really just bought from Samsung like our monitors

[beerbagger]

11:04 AM on 08/30/2011

I wonder if they're considering selling these to the rich Chinese or Indians... Considering lots of people here lost their homes and jobs...

[kinogod]

10:58 AM on 08/30/2011

15 to 19 inches? Try 55 inches and then I am interested.

[bobbyO]

09:46 AM on 08/30/2011

Every time a rumor of a new Apple product is discussed you have two very different camps of people. One camp loves everything Apple and one camp hates everything Apple. Apple has had many bad products,but the good out weigh the bad and for those haters out there you cannot complain against such products as iPods,iPhones,& iPads along with MacBook pro computers. Let's just wait and see if Apple tv is worth it or if it even appears, but don't hate on something successful just because it is successful.

[No Yards]

11:38 AM on 08/30/2011

"you cannot complain against such products as iPods,iPho­nes,& iPads along with MacBook pro computers"

That all depends what you are looking for in technology .. hand holding for people who fear technology, or technology that gives you choice and freedom to use it as your see fit.

Both types of people can have their needs addressed, and if it weren't for Apples business practices (ie: patent trolling) I wouldn't give two hoots what they were doing to address the needs of the techno-uninitiated ... but when they are out there trying to undermine the rest of the market with silly patent suits claiming the ownership of rounded corners, rectangles, finger movements, etc. then they become the enemy ... just as any organization that attempts, through means of force and dirty tactics, to have everyone conform to their ideal of "perfect".

I see the cult of Apple as no better than Dominionist Christian or Taliban groups in these terms. If Apple were so good, then they wouldn't need to play dirty and use marketing FUD.

[helioszephyr]

12:24 PM on 08/31/2011

"hand holding for people who fear technology , or technology that gives you choice and freedom to use it as your see fit."

These 2 perceptions are not mutually exclusive.

[Cael]

08:48 AM on 08/30/2011

Probably cost 12,000 dollars for a 42 inch.

[No Yards]

08:29 AM on 08/30/2011

Apple TV? Right:

a TV that you won't let you watch any show that Jobs didn't like;

a TV that you have to change the channel by going to the "channel store" (copy right 2011) and buying a channel change credit;

a TV that comes out only able to receive "drama" programs and will have to bring to the shop to have it upgraded to support "comedy";

a TV that comes in black only, but half way through the product cycle will become available in white and be promoted as some amazing achievement in design by fanbois who will line up for days to buy their white TVs;

a TV that comes with a 1-button remote;

a TV that makes your experience "easy" on everything but you pocket book, your privacy and freedom of choice.

[oldsquare]

08:40 AM on 08/30/2011

You would be much happier if you would drop the Apple envy and just go out and buy the Apple product of your choice and join the millions of users world-wide who own and enjoy the quality, convenience and simplicity of Apple-made products.

[No Yards]

08:56 AM on 08/30/2011

If I ever get into a serious accident and suffer from brain damage I just might take you up on that.

In the meantime while you "conveniently and simply" consume the latest propaganda from the "communist dictatorship" of the technology world, I'll take a few minutes to become familiar with the tools I have available to me in the world of technology choice and freedom, and consume what matters to me, and not what some "user experience expert" trying to cater to the lowest common denominator tells me is suppose to matter.

[Ayesha Khan]

07:39 AM on 08/30/2011

I hope this new Innovation by Apple will be a Great Success, as Apple has always been good with Graphic Technology, it always carried a Subtle Style in its Products, most Probably cause Steve Jobs is a very Creative Person and has a Sharp Sense for Aesthetics. However other factors are under consideration also, as now Apple has some very good Competitors in the Line, now lets see who can achieve best Technological and Economical results.........

[JosephTX]

01:49 PM on 08/30/2011

Jesus Christ, What's with All the random Capitalizations in This Post?

[Ayesha Khan]

02:03 PM on 08/30/2011

my comments were not addressed to you and i remain under no obligation to give you an explanation -------- get lost---------

[ValerieRose]

04:07 AM on 08/30/2011

One of the key ideas to this theory is a TV subscription service offered by Apple. The TV would be a replacement and an upgrade to the Apple set-top box currently available for $99.
http://radiomobiletech.com/blogposts/rumor-apple-to-produce-tv-set-in-2012.html

[WingedHelmet]

01:51 AM on 08/30/2011

Be sure to complain about Apple building products overseas and ignore others that do the same.

Dell Opening Chinese Factory, Creating 3,000 Jobs

"In the past two years, Dell has closed two domestic manufacturing facilities: one in Austin, Texas, and another in Lebanon, Tennessee.

And just last year, the company announced that it would be closing its last large U.S. manufacturing facility. The plant, located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, was the last U.S. facility where Dell manufactured personal computers.

That closure is set to cost some 900 jobs, the company said last year."

http://economyincrisis.org/content/dell-opening-chinese-factory-creating-3000-jobs

[Charismatron]

07:40 AM on 08/30/2011

Revealing my ignorance, I did not know there was a place in Tennessee called Lebanon.

[Bishop Coxcomb]

11:17 AM on 08/30/2011

It seemed like all the made for TV products and TV albums were sold from Lebanon, TN.

[mjredder]

12:46 AM on 08/30/2011

Whose brilliant idea is it to add "getting up from where you're sitting and physically going over to interact with the TV to get it to do what you want" BACK into the TV-viewing experience? Make it voice-activated already!

[tyrant510]

12:42 AM on 08/30/2011

"Talk about adding insult to injury: not only do TVs have low margins, people hardly ever buy them."

Apple will change that. I use a custom configured Macbook Pro that runs around $4,000 and they last about 4 years.

[JosephTX]

01:55 PM on 08/30/2011

There's no such thing as a laptop with $4,000 worth of equipment inside it. you know those Intel laptop processors--the most crucial and expensive component in a computer--cost up to like $300, right?

[tyrant510]

02:55 PM on 08/30/2011

yes, i do know that. i understand how retail works, thank you--everything has a mark-up. some more. some less. as expensive as apple's machines are they are still far superior than anything else out there, especially for graphic designers and artists who use computers, of which i am one. so if you think i'm going to be using a dell anytime soon, you are out of your fing mind.

[ResearchtheFacts]

12:27 AM on 08/30/2011

Well, told you Apple's iOS is crappy somebody has ported Android to iPad and iPhone. What would be the need or desire if iOS was all that? lol Fisherprice time is over.

[CaptainObvvious]

08:08 AM on 08/30/2011

That is some incredibly specious reasoning.

The facts don't draw the conclusion you've reached at all.

Look online, Google it and you will find plenty of people asking how to port iOS to their Android phones.

[No Yards]

08:47 AM on 08/30/2011

You will find a few i-diots asking how to port a closed iOS over to an open platform, but in the vast vast majority of cases you will find that the question being asked about porting android to an iOS device (on the other hand, Android has been ported to run on some iOS devices already.)

Just because every now and then some fanboi with the common sense Jobs gave iTunes asks a stupid question or gets punked into believing iOS can be ported to an Android hardware platform (unless Apple does it themselves,) doesn't make it some kind of rush to replace Android with iOS.

Fortunately for you you failed to "reason" at all in your post, so it can't be called "specious".

[ResearchtheFacts]

03:32 PM on 08/30/2011

No not true, i never said iOS was wanted on an Android device. You interpret things from your own warped rationale always. Every time you respond you speak in terms of Android phones I'm talking about tablets. Last I checked iPad is a tablet but easily mistaken for a phone because of crappy GUI. They are porting Android to all Apple devices, not just one. lol

Oh and by the way Steve Jobs is Arab, Syrian to be exact his real father's last name is Jandali and is still living. His mother was white and they married after she gave Steve up for adoption without telling his biological dad Jandali.  It was announced on CNN and you can find the full story there.

[ResearchtheFacts]

12:26 AM on 08/30/2011

Too bad the poll didn't have a "hell no" category.

[CaptainObvvious]

08:06 AM on 08/30/2011

You're showing your hand. You know nothing about the TV... NOTHING and you are already dead set against it.

[No Yards]

09:01 AM on 08/30/2011

No one knows anything about it, or even if it is GOING to exist .. yet, there is an article here about it.

If Apple shills can post about it's potential to exist, then it's open season on what that existence might entail.

If Apple shills don't want criticism of an as yet nonexistent product, then they can easily stop it by keeping their traps closed.