Apple to sell flat panel TV's ?
 

Interesting speculation - "Why Apple Will Enter - And Win - the Flat Panel TV Market"

http://biz.yahoo.com/seekingalpha/06...5_id.html?.v=1

As Steve Jobs said, to paraphrase, "Apple in your car. Apple in your living room. Apple at your desk. Apple in your life." I'm sure they'll find a way to put Apple in your dreams...

That's what they're doing now and have been for years!

That should be the next 64 inches Cinema Display i hear about!

Well... I dreamed about...

Get me two of them and I´ll burn my eyes there!

It would be interesting to see how a company that usually goes the proprietary route try and find a niche in a standardized (and heavily saturated) LCD/HDTV market.

I have no doubt they would "win" compared to Dell or HP but competing against the likes of Panasonic, Samsung, and Sony is another story all together.

I'm a Mac/PC guy but when it comes to buying a HDTV I'm going to get the best specs at the best price, not whats in a glossy white case...

Apple's evolution is fascinating to watch. They are expected to enter the cell phone market soon also. That's such a huge market that even a tiny slice of it could mean a lot.

Interesting, now they just need a gaming console. The iBox

There is a 56inch 8mp display that we have been discussing over at the Red forum. It has advanced colour and angle of view features. They also have a 4 Mpixel 30 inch.

The industry is moving to a few techniques to improve colour range even further, recently a scheme was mentioned to increase the colour range to beyond what the human eye could discern.

The FED, carbon Nano tube are all supposed to be superior up and coming displays. But the OLED like displays are supposed to be very good (like though??) and much cheaper than LCD.

Samsung has 3D, but LG is offering a slot in miniPC for their display. This is the way to go, if Apple does not offer an upgradeable slot in Mac, then they might not be doing themselves any favours. A slot in Mac (that could also be used on other slot in displays) would not require you to upgrade the TV every 2 years.

Here are some interesting links on these:

http://www.cmv.com.tw/en/aboutlcd.asp
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=330028760083
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/09...in_3d_display/
http://www.oled-info.com/
http://www.viewsonic.com/support/des...290b/index.htm
http://www.viewsonic.com/support/des...290b/index.htm
http://www.cmo.com.tw/cmo/english/pr...td.jsp?size=30
http://www.cmo.com.tw/cmo/english/pr...20051012111324

The move into home theatre has been talked about for a long time.

If anybody is aware of any other 8MP+ displays, please let me know, I am building a database up of them, as they can display 1080p and 720p full screen properly, without interpolation, and are close to Digital Cinema standard?

It's no secret what Apple's long-term aims are. Basically, to run your life in ways Microsoft never dreamed of. I don't think MS ever talked about the "Microsoft lifestyle" in ways even remotely approaching Apple.

An Apple branded LCD TV with a built in "iTV" could be a modest success. The problem is, Apple's strenghts in the consumer arena stem from entering markets with products that "fix" the problems that consumers face. The iPod and iTunes brought clarity to a very messy and disjointed digital music player market. Apple may not have invented the MP3 player, but they certainly figured out what people want and how they want to use it. The simplified and less obtrusive DRM of the iTunes Music Store made it a success.

The TV market is pretty solid. Problems consumers face stem not from the TVs themselves, but from content providers, poor cable/satellite service and a ridiculous next generation DVD format war. An Apple LCD cannot address any of these issues.

Thats some powerful truth!

Here's where Apple could steal a march on other companies.

The major retailers like Best Buy are getting into the HDTV installation business. Why? Because the return rate on HDTVs is rather high because people get them home and cannot set them up or get pictures like they see in the store etc. The installation service has become important to selling the TVs.

Apple has a lot of design experience in making products "for the rest of us" that are easy to use out of the box -- it they could do the same with the confusing world of HDTV they'd have a competitive advantage.

What could they do? As referenced above, the problem isn't with the TVs themselves; it's with content providers and general lack of consumer knowledge. An Apple HDTV can't pull in HD content if there isn't any to be pulled in.

I think a lot of people assume that if they have an HDTV, everything on it will be HD -- and of course they're disappointed and think the TV is to blame. Not much Apple can do about that.