Suggests Apple-made TV could sell 1.4M in 2012

Apple has been working on prototype TVs since at least September, claims Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster. The information comes from a September meeting with a "contact close to an Asian component supplier," and Munster has not offered any more details from the encounter. The fact is mentioned in the light of Steve Jobs' own admission that he had "cracked" the concept of a smart TV interface.

To support the notion of an Apple-designed TV, Munster refers back to January meetings with other Asian sources, which he says indicate Apple is investing in manufacturing facilities and securing supplies for LCD displays. These screens could, however, allegedly be churned out in sizes ranging from 3.5 to 50 inches, making no clear indication that a TV is the end goal. The biggest screens currently used by Apple measure 27 inches, and are found in the iMac, Cinema Display, and Thunderbolt Display.

Munster also remarks that Apple has filed for a number of TV-related patents, such as one dating back to October 2006 involving browsing and recording live TV. A patent published in January 2011 documents a system that could "include a set-top box with or without a digital video recorder (DVR) (or, personal video recorder (PVR). In other example implementations, a display with built-in functionality (e.g, a television)."

What Jobs may have come up with, Munster speculates, is a way of mixing live TV with previously-captured shows on iCloud. He also proposes that the Siri voice command system could be extended to a TV, solving long-standing interface problems. On the current Apple TV set-top, for instance, typing in titles can be extremely tedious even when using a connected iPhone or iPad.

Munster estimates that of a predicted 220 million in total 2012 flat-panel TV sales, Apple might take about 1.4 million, falling within a subset of 106 million Internet-ready units. If Apple hits the 1.4 million mark, it's believed that the device could add $2.5 billion to the company's CY2012 revenue, followed by $4 billion in 2013, and $6 billion in 2014. All of these numbers assume, however, that Apple intends to announce and ship a TV next year.

By Electronista Staff