Future of ATV

[brendu]

So I was thinking about it and IMO the TV is really not that great as it stands now... No built in web browsing, Its basacally a sweet front row box... So I thought, I bet apple is going to come out with their own TV set with built in TV like hardware and alot more...

Heres what I think they should make...

40" and 50" models of an LCD or LED tv that have built in isight capable of facial recognition and eye detection that can tell exactly where on the tv you are looking at, then simply by pointing or gesturing you could control it without any physical remote... add in voice recognition and the user could say commands like "Volume Down" "Mute" "Channel Up" or "Channel 210"... Also it would have an integrated TV store with games, apps, and entertainment built in...

These were just random thoughts I had that I could see apple introduce that would "revolutionize" the television as we use it today... of course there are many technical issues accompanying this, but it would be pretty cool and I could see replacing the bland TV box with something sweet like this...

 

[godslabrat]

I don't think Apple wants to jump into the display business any further. The cinema displays for their computer line don't get much attention, and tv models change so often it would have to be a market they'd pursue very aggressively. Apple manages to maintain computers, Ipods, and iPhones, but with the margins on tv sets shrinking, I don't think apple would see a great return on that investment. I could be wrong.

 

[gibbz]

This has been suggested, questioned, and speculated for some time now.

Doesn't seem too likely.

 

[jaw04005]

If Apple could learn to work with partners, I'm sure many TV manufacturers would love to replace their in-house media GUIs/systems with Apple TV's software.

However, that's sort of against their culture.

Samsung, Toshiba, Vizio and Panasonic would jump at the chance to support iTunes DRMed content natively on their displays.

But Apple getting into the competitive "race to the bottom" HDTV business? Won't happen.

Even Pioneer (another premium brand) is exiting the business because people didn't want to pay $2500+ for TVs even though their products are generally rated best of class.