Few people on this planet currently know whether Apple plans to release its own television set. And Piper Jaffray’s in-house Apple analyst Gene Munster claims to be one of them. During a recent interview with Bloomberg Radio, Muster said that an Apple television is not only real, it will be “the biggest thing… since the smartphone.”
“Apple Television is real,” said Munster. “I think it’s going to be the biggest thing in consumer electronics since the smartphone came out. The biggest thing in five years. Based on some of the things we’re hearing about it, I think it’s going to live up to some of the building hype.”
Moreover, Munster claims that the Apple television (speculatively called “iTV”) will look completely different from the televisions we’re used to. “It will look different,” he said. “Imagine just kind of a sheet of glass, is kind of what the look would be. There wouldn’t be edges or bevels on it.”
When asked whether the mythical device will have the Siri voice-controlled artificial intelligence technology found in the iPhone 4S, Munster said that Siri would only be part of the user interface equation. The other way will likely be a traditional TV remote of some sort.
“I think voice is going to be one of the ways you can [control the iTV],” says Munster. “But a lot of people are still couch potatoes and enjoy just sitting surfing their channel guide. And I think Apple will still allow you to do that. This isn’t something that you have to sit down and know exactly what you want.”
So, how much of Munster’s predictions should you take seriously? None of it. Okay, maybe all of it. Or just some of it. Thing is, nobody — not you, not us, not Munster — know for certain what Apple will or will not release. And remember, the iTV rumor was more or less started by Munster, who, all the way back in March of 2010, wrote that Apple’s next big market SHOULD be the TV market. Not that it will be, but that it should be. This is based on Munster’s calculations that Cupertino could generate an additional $5.2 billion from TV sales in 2013, and up to $7.6 billion in 2014.
Given the amount of chatter we’ve heard about a so-called iTV, it would be a surprise if Apple doesn’t release the rumored device at all. But that doesn’t mean it will, even if there’s supposedly money to be made. If Munster’s right, however, we’ll have our answer by the end of this year.
Journalists should start rating analyst’s predictions (particularly with Apple) based on their previous good or bad predictions.
Eg, “Analyst X says this will come this year, however his previous predictions were only 20% right.”
Might give readers an idea of how much salt to pinch.
This last time around with all the iPhone 5 predictions – and we didn’t even get the damn phone – was the final straw. Any articles with “Apple” “iPhone” “iPad”, “Analyst”, “rumor” immediately falls on deaf ears.
Kind of like the Republicans trying to “elect” someone to run as President… even the media is turning away coverage..
Munster has been pretty spot on about his Apple predictions in the past and Piper Jaffray has a good reputation for getting things right.
I was about to write exactly the same thing. Munster has always predicted big successes for Apple and has almost always been right. He’s kinda the opposite of Rob Enderle, the Apple fail guy, who despite being wrong about Apple almost 100 percent of the time, still gets quoted on blogs and TV networks. Go figure. Some folks, even editors, seem oblivious to who gets it right and who doesn’t.
Well, Enderle is a different type of analyst in my book. He is an independent and not repping a firm like Piper Jaffery. So he is able to pass off his opinion as recommendations without doing too much research; and that ends up biting him in the butt. Even if you guess the outcomes enough times, you are likely to get one right as is his case. Thank god no one is keeping track of batting averages here haha.
Well Who in their right mind would get up and touch their T.V. it wouldn’t need a touch screen.
Imagine if you bolted the TV to the wall in a communal place like the kitchen. A touch screen would then make sense.
Steve is dead…I figured the absurd hyperbole went with him…if apple sold water it would be “teh biggest thing eva”
Just one more thing to jailbreak….
Number one for it that it has to be properly able to run plex and connect to my media servers
Lol at game changing. Just like every other “revolutionary” device that put out that is already outdated.
I can hope they won’t fail to bring us something that could amaze us. At the same time I’m pretty sure the prices will fly high for it. I wonder if a regular person would be able to afford it.
i will pass if i have to use iTunes in any fashion