It’s coming. When it hits the market, how much it will cost, and whether it will redefine an entire industry like a few other notable products in the company’s arsenal have are all questions with unclear answers, but make no mistake: Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is making a television.
The Cupertino, Calif.-based technology company owns your pocket contents. Now it wants your living room. Given the way people have responded to the iPad — Apple sold just under 40 million tablets inside of 18 months — it’s obvious Apple knows how to get people to buy an unusual, expensive piece of technology that they didn’t even know they wanted.
What precisely will the Apple HDTV be, though? Details are scarce at this stage. As quoted in Walter Isaacson’s new biography, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs said, “Id like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use … It would seamlessly integrate with all of your devices and with iCloud. It will have the simplest interface. I finally cracked it.”
For now, here’s what’s known or being hinted at for Apple’s new HDTV:
iOS
The device likely will be an iOS device, using the same operating system as the iPad, iPhone and existing Apple TV set-top box. Unlike the Apple TV, though, the new device will support live TV and DVR, much like traditional cable boxes. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster has been saying as much since September 2010 when Apple signed a confidential multiyear deal with Rovi (NASDAQ:ROVI). At the time, Munster said, “(Apple) will likely launch an all-in-one Apple Television in the next 2-4 years. Following its deal with Rovi, Apple would be clear to add live TV, DVR, and guidance features to its Apple TV product, which we believe is a critical step towards in all-in-one Apple Television.”
LCD
It’s also likely that Apple’s set will be an LCD television. Apple invested nearly $4 billion in the LCD screen industry in January, securing contracts with Wintek, Sharp and TPK. While it made sense for Apple to shore Apple LCD supplies given the runaway success of its portable devices, the large sum poured in the technology also was noted as evidence of Apple’s TV plans, according to Munster.
User Interface
Bloomberg reported Monday that Apple vice president and iTunes co-creator Jeff Robbin is working on the interface for the television. There are no concrete details as to what Robbin has in store for the television, but given Apple’s emphasis on simplicity, it’s possible the television will do away with a remote control altogether and rely instead on gestural and voice controls. Apple made voice control a central feature of the iPhone 4S thanks to the Siri app. Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) already is blazing this trail in the TV market with the Xbox 360 game console and the Kinect motion/voice control device. The Kinect can be used to search for TV content using only voice commands and flicks of the wrist in front of the device’s camera.
Services
Apple’s TV, of course, will integrate the company’s many disparate services in addition to the stock television features. The App Store will bring video games to the service, iTunes will offer movie and television rentals, and all of this media will be accessible on all of a customers’ devices thanks to iCloud. This is in addition to support for popular communication tools like FaceTime.
The biggest mysteries at this stage are cost and content support. Munster places Apple’s TVs at the premium end of HDTV pricing, around $2,000, which is in line with how Apple prices its other products. As far as content goes, though, Stern Agee analyst Shaw Wu pointed out on Tuesday that Apple likely still is struggling to get television networks, cable companies and film studios on board with its plans. News Corp. (NASDAQ:NWS), Disney (NYSE:DIS) and others have been reluctant to participate in Apple’s past TV plans — especially the 99-cent TV episode rentals Apple offered briefly over the past 12 months.
An iOS-powered LCD TV with App Store support that lets people video chat in their living room, record live television, watch TV via the web and play video games — all in what is likely Apple’s patented slick industrial design. Jobs might not have cracked the TV industry before his death. He might have conquered it.
As of this writing, Anthony John Agnello did not own a position in any of the stocks named here. Follow him on Twitter at @ajohnagnello and become a fan of InvestorPlace on Facebook.
