All this talk of Apple designing and building their own television is nonsense. It’s another episode in the video collection of Technopundits Gone Wild. My inspiration to dissect the insipid comes from Nathan Safran’s 9 Ways Apple Could Persuade You To Buy Their TV in ReadWriteWeb.
Yes, We Love Apple Designs
Wouldn’t you love to see Apple unload design god Jonathan Ive on a TV? What would it look like? My bet is on an Apple Cinema Display; a really giant iPad screen but in 16:9, the way God intended.
Safran’s 9 Ways are attached to Apple’s persuasive powers, as if we are cult members who’d buy anything from Cupertino. Uh uh. Sorry, Charlie. It must have taste. I didn’t buy a Barbie doll iBook back in the day. Neither will many people buy a $1,500 Apple TV.
$1,500? Sure. Apple commands big margins. If a tiny iPhone and iPad cost about $600 on average, do you think a big giant Apple television set will cost the same? Dream on.
Taking each of the 9 ways into dissection mode:
#9 – App Ecosystem: It already works on the iPhone and iPad and AppleTV, what else would it bring to a television set that the other items don’t?
#8 – Social Integration: See above. Although I’d like to see a TV with a camera for Skype, iChat, FaceTime, et al.
#7 – DVR to End All DVRs: I want one, too. That could be a game changer and Apple knows it. Why bother to buy online when you can DVR everything.
The overall price tag changes, too. I pay $10 a month for DVR from the cable company. That’s $120 a year. In five years it’s $600. In 10 years, it’s $1,200. Would Apple’s TV last that long?
#6 – New Gaming Experiences: How? Wouldn’t AirPlay via iPhone or iPad to AppleTV do the same thing?
#5 – Extend the iOS/Mac Screen. Which can already be done via Mac mini, AppleTV, iPhone, iPad, et al.
#4 – Video Conferencing: Gotta have a camera in the television, otherwise you’re holding an iPhone or iPad. What happens when other manufacturers include a camera in their TVs for half the price?
#3 – Sexy Integration: A television gets sexy? Please.
#2 – Content: Duh. Isn’t that what TV’s about? 500 channels and nothing’s on. Apple will do what with the TV’s content?
#1 – Aesthetics: Sure, I’m willing to pay $1,500 for a Jonathan Ive designed television with an aluminum case and an Apple logo. It needs to be one pretty box, because all it’s doing is sitting on the wall.
An Apple designed television is wishful thinking from industry technopundits to drum up digital dust, to create a little noise on a slow news day, to increase their site’s page hits, add article comments from Apple cult members.
It won’t happen. No Apple TV for you. Except that little AppleTV box for $99 still has plenty of potential with a cable connector and a DVR app.
you’re totally right that these techonpundits completely miss what Apple is doing now with Apple TV, AirPlay, and Screen Mirroring in iOS 5. it will effectively put all your iOS apps on your TV screen, with the iOS devices as the dramatically new and better remote control for them. their built in cameras for video calls are plenty good enough – and best of all you can move them around, which you can’t with a built-in TV camera.
the “go to market” issue is access to the medicos’ content, no matter what the delivery method. but we are seeing more and more iOS apps that are web equivalents of CATV channels, with mixtures of free (e.g. PBS and the news channels), ad-supported, and subscription content. the only question is whether they allow that to be displayed via AirPlay/Screen Mirroring (or at what PQ) too. but it works, and costs less than a CATV bundle of many channels you don’t really need.
i expect to the technopundits to finally catch on to all this early next year. unless Apple chooses to promote Apple TV aggressively at long last with TV ads etc. during the Holidays featuring these new capabilities.