Thursday, February 2, 2012

Report: Apple Reaching Out To TV Component Suppliers

Rampant conjecture says Apple has a full-fledged, big-screen TV plan in the functions - an iTV, if you will. Now Piper Jaffray researcher Gene Munster says Apple has been contacting part makers for its set, heading him to think it will roughly unquestionably home in 2012.

In a note to investors on Tuesday, Munster wrote that a "major TV part supplier" told him Apple has been in hold with them concerning TV components. However, Munster moreover conceded that Apple might never obviously let go a TV at all.

"We think that Apple usually enters developed markets with the objective of revolutionizing them , as it did with the smartphone," Munster wrote in his note. "Without a revamped TV calm solution, you do not think Apple enters the TV market."

Nonetheless, says other analyst, right away might obviously be a great time for Apple to take the chic TV marketplace by storm.

"The radio marketplace in many ways looks really identical to the landscape of the handset attention before the foyer of the iPhone," NPD researcher Ross Rubin said. Indeed, all the major TV manufacturers are receiving not similar approaches to chic TV implementation. The margin is fragmented and lacks a coherent personality - so Apple could really well come in an attention ripe is to taking.

Still, timing is a key situation here. DisplaySearch researcher Paul Gagnon feels that a 2012 launch date could be unrealistic. Indeed, in the past, Munster had even tapped 2011 as when we'd see an Apple-branded television.

"Most TVs need at least a year to produce from pattern source to production, so if Apple is just right away conversing to part suppliers, it might be difficult to launch in 2012," Gagnon said. However, Gagnon does admit that it's not unfit that Apple could whip suppliers in to shape, and obtain a product out by the finish of the year.

Apple could have been working on a radio plan as early as 2007, and conjecture says Siri voice manage waste a key underline of any contingent UI . This considered was bolstered when it came to light that Steve Jobs told memoirist Walter Isaacson he had "finally cracked" the complaint of creation a user-friendly chic TV previous to his death.

In his note to investors, Munster outlines 3 ways he sees Apple implementing a chic TV platform.

The simplest trail would be for Apple to associate with line companies and offer a TiVo-like interface for handling live TV service. This wouldn't be incredibly revolutionary, but the interface could offer iTunes film rentals and other purchases right on the TV.

A more intricate doing would engage Apple providing live TV from major networks, together with gift web-based programming from sources similar to Hulu and Netflix. Additional video calm could be purchased by iTunes on the TV.

The final probability Munster suggests is that Apple could offer a monthly subscription package for à la grant TV offerings. This would let Apple manage the entire radio experience, but would be a difficult exploit to lift of. Apple would turn "a practical MSO (Multiple Services Provider)." Indeed, deliberation CBS reportedly incited down a streaming treat for Apple TV, this sounds similar to an doubtful scenario.

"A lot of the explanation that Munster creates about service offerings are interesting, but they all have a lot of complications," Gagnon said. "And unlike partnering with a mobile offerer similar to ATT, as Apple did in the smartphone market, MSOs typically dont have national coverage, so they'd have to rise a lot of offerings to supply that coverage."

In October, you looked at what an Apple radio set could offer formed on rumors and Apple's stream technologies. Our conclusion: The TV would have an innovative user interface, but Apple wouldn't expected radicalize the live radio calm placement model.

around Cult of Mac

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