Ti and Adam,

Thanks for your comments. 

Ti, I agree with you.  Apple is primarily an integrator.  They don’t make any of the high cost components that make up a large flat screen; companies like Samsung and Panasonic do.

Thus Apple is starting from a cost disadvantage, on top of which they will then add their own outrageous margins.

What they admittedly do well is UI, and there will undoubtedly be throngs of their faithful that will buy whatever they announce.  But I predict when you put their TV next to equivalent ones, with an equal picture, that are half the price, it’s not going to be as quick or easy a sale as are carrier-subsidized iPhones.

Adam, your point about connectivity is a good one.  802.11AC should improve upon that.

@adam,
apple has not moved anywhere near reasonable prices (with reasonable being subjective, of course). you can’t compare phones as they are subsidized as are others and you never know the true price. so only macs and ipads are remotely comparable and both are far more expensive than their competition. want to argue that MacOS and iOS is “worth it”? fine…that’s debatable but you aren’t going to be very successful making that argument with a television set that for a vast vast majority of its time will need to play the content that you ask it to play.

there is no features or technology in TVs that would command a 50 point price premium in TVs to the end user.  None.

Sam, if you look at Apple’s pricing over the last 5 years they have moved toward far more reasonable prices with margins in line with new tech and features ahead of the curve. Teardowns of their products have proven this over and over again. If they released a product at 50% price-points than the competition, then it would have the features and tech to support it.

They would never release a product for a “niche” unless they were simply testing technology to get to a future product that would incorporate the niche one. Almost every product from Apple since the Newton was an attempt to get closer to Jobs’ ultimate goal of the iPad.

To me what is most interesting is the fact that Apple TV (the hockey puck) and Google TV have relied on WiFi to connect to the Internet. For the majority of home networks, this will create a substandard quality of service. I wonder if Apple is paying attention to this fact and either waiting for more robust wireless to come into play to support an actual Smart TV, or if they are looking into MoCA to take advantage of the already existing infrastructure within 90% of America’s homes.

In my opinion unless the connectivity issue is completely resolved, Apple will never release an “Apple TV”.

I agree with both Marty and Don’s comments below.  I doubt that consumers will be willing to pay a 50% premium for an “Apple” TV.

Once they find the true price of Apple products (i.e., ones without an ATT or Verizon subsidy) the demand for those products is likely to be much less robust. 

(In fact, I’m not sure why the telecoms keep taking it in the shorts for Apple.  They never seem to recoup their subsidies because after two years, they are forced to repeat the cycle.)

Apple can do that now with an external box. If we don’t watch it Apple will put everybody out of business. That is not good, period. They are sucking the life out of consumer electronics.