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Foxconn CEO Fuels iTV Rumors
An anonymous reader writes "Apple may soon begin production of a full-blown HDTV, dubbed iTV by Apple watchers, according to the Terry Gou, CEO of Apple's main hardware supplier Foxconn, in a brief interview with the newspaper China Daily. The newspaper reports that the device will feature 'aluminum construction, Siri, and FaceTime video calling' and will be manufactured by a 50-50 joint venture between Foxconn and the Japanese manufacturer Sharp; other details, including the schedule, were notably absent. Apple's spokesperson has declined comment. So it's not clear how solid this 'scoop' is."
Sorry, not interested in a propritery iTV where I can only watch what Apple wants.
try getting that domain back...
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
It was not really an interview. It was a presentation to a group. And *none* of the other reporters present seem to have heard this alleged remark. More info here.
see http://www.itv.com/
been a UK TV company since like forever
who where what when now?
I like anything that is shiny and made by Apple!
So, good luck calling it that here in the UK.
http://www.ipo.gov.uk/domestic?domesticnum=2406230A
This is getting dangerously close to the super high end crap they sell audiophiles.
It'd be interesting except every rumor I've ever heard quotes this 27" size which is small by today's standards and the prices I've heard are all well over a grand. If they came out with what amounts to a 42" iPad with a tuner and sold it for $1,200 to $1,500 I think they'd make a killing even if the resolution was the same as an iPad. Coming out with one half that sized when I can buy a 42" for $500 or $600 is pointless. 27" TVs sell for a couple of hundred not $1,500. What they are describing is an iMac without the computer part and a tuner thrown in. I really doubt the lack of a tuner is why people around the country aren't watching iMacs instead of TVs in their living rooms.
Would rather have an add-on box that had these features so I don't need a new tv and will work with anything out there. Why would anyone buy a TV with such integrated, limited features when they will be outdated long before the TV is?
Give me a marginally smart tv (net capable, some apps), and then anything else let a standalone and easily replaceable box be added, sort of like, I don't know, the current AppleTV?
Apple is an expert at stealing other people's trademarks while simultaneously protecting their own.
Support Right To Repair Legislation.
iDevices are this generations BMW car. They are incredibly well marketed and I cannot begin to count the number of people on many Apple forums that I visit who finance all of these devices.
How do you tell when someone is going beyond their means in the realm of electronics
1) They finance it
2) They quibble over 25 and 50 dollar upgrades
3) See #1 combined with going with a top end model when a lower end easily suffices
Don't underestimate the power of Apple's marketing to have people make irrational purchasing decisions. Come people don't need a new device each generation but forums everywhere are replete with many doing such
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
The one consistent thing I've seen with the vast majority of HDTVs is that many of them cannot show a basic computer image without messing up the display in some way. For example, many "1080p" HDTVs arbitrarily limit the VGA input to 1024x768, and there's also models that arbitrarily subsample input to 4:2:2, which introduces color fringing. (Just try using any sort of program that displays text on that!) Virtually none of the displays I've used that are marketed as standard monitors have these issues.
What I'm wondering is if Apple's "HDTV" will actually be usable as a standard monitor, or if they'll use the same garbage decoders found in the rest of the dime-a-dozen displays. If they do use a standard monitor decoder instead of garbage, then it might actually be worth a purchase, regardless of the brand name or extra iOS functionality. (Obviously it would need to actually support various inputs like VGA, YPbPr, etc; a Thunderbolt-only HDTV is kinda useless.)
I've been axiously waiting for someone to put an affordable, technolgically advanced TV out on the market that will respect the user's freedom.
Alex, I'll take keybindings not used by Emacs for $400....
download caps will kill this like the Sony online idea.
Cost doesn't matter. Size doesn't matter.
If Apple pushes this with a billion dollar ad campaign, saying it's revolutionary and make people feel like losers if they don't have one, it will sell like hot cakes.
I know several families who are struggling to make ends meet, yet mom and dad sport an iphones with data plans, kids have ipods and ipads. It's sad, but true.
even then in the UK they can't call it iTV as that will be market confusion.
Once upon a time, Apple Computers signed an agreement with Apple Records (of Beatles fame) that allowed them to use the Apple name provided they stayed out of the music business. Then along came iTunes, and the "Computer" was dropped from the name. I just wonder how much they paid the old Apple Records company for the right to broaden their markets?
Yeah, it's off topic. :)
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
CEO of Apple's main hardware supplier Foxconn
will be manufactured by a 50-50 joint venture between Foxconn and the Japanese manufacturer Sharp
I'm willing to bet one of these facts is about to change.
Either this CEO is going to get canned, or Apple will be giving that 50% to someone else.
What do I know, I'm just an idiot, right?
Lets see what patents will Apple have when it comes to television.
My telco offers IPTV box with a load of features but a really lousy interface. There's also a tablet app available that will show most of the channels but the interface is basically select one channel from a list and watch it. With so many people having tablets around it makes so much sense to integrate with TVs and make a tablet somewhat like a secondary screen and a much better remote. Apple has everything in place to make such a TV and a lot of space to innovate. Ipads and Iphones can become personal touch interfaces for the apps running on TV. I can think of dozens of functions that can be made easier and more intuitive with such a setup. Plus they can afford to use a higher-powered CPU/GPU in the TV making it more suitable for console-like software.
Shhhhh. If we are all quiet enough about it, Apple will start using iTV as a name before figuring it out that someone else already has it. Then ITV can sue the living crap out of Apple for trademark infringement. Would that not be sweet?
Why is it that most of the people that I encounter seem to have been shat from the Sphincter of Mediocrity?
Why would anyone buy a TV with such integrated, limited features when they will be outdated long before the TV is?
Because they already have enough external boxes (pay TV decoder, game console, etc.) creating a spider web of cables behind the TV, and they're running out of ports.
If Apple created a TV it would be awesome and terrible.
Apple has the ability to make things that seem "futuristic" just by incorporating the technologies that everyone begs and pleads to be put into devices, but companies never do. Ex: Voice recognition is a killer app in the living room. The ability to say "Play the next episode of " without picking-up a remote, or running the Netflix/Hulu/DVR app, would be great. A tiny bit of intelligence would be good too: "Play the next episode of that is not a multipart episode" is a good query. Recognizing the person speaking also opens up lots of possibilities.
But if Apple did it, it wouldn't work with which would be frustrating. Maybe that would be your Linux streaming box, or your stereo with the optical audio system, or your favorite streaming service that you just bought a subscription to.
Why would you have so many other devices, when the AppleTV will do all of that and more? You only need one port when you have an AppleTV!
(please don't take this post seriously, I just wondered what it would be like if I worked for Apple marketing.)
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
But would it be 50/50? Foxconn just bought a 50% stake in Sharp’s LCD display manufacturing plant. So is it 50/50 with Sharp or with the LCD Plant - in which case it would be more like 75% / 25%.
From bbc.co.uk (competitor of iTV ...)
(Sony's) TV business, one of its biggest growth drivers in the past, has been hit hard by increased competition and falling prices. The division has been making losses for eight years in a row.
LCD displays are commodity hardware with tiny margins. The only things I could see Apple adding is a decent menu system, an intuitive remote and a built-in PVR system (maybe). Churning out overpriced commodity hardware would make them some nice profits in the short term, but in the long term they would dilute their brand, which is basically most of Apple's value.
I'm sure Apple microwave ovens would sell great too, perhaps they could pay homage to the current CEO by calling it the iCook ...
Buy out Comcast and make it a Co-op. $158 / subscriber / month for two years for the market cap.
If a 24" monitor is $1,000, I can only imagine what a 40 inch will cost.
I had never read the term "port multiplier". A cursory Google search showed that it can mean a switch box (select among several signals) or a signal splitter (run multiple displays from one signal). I assume you meant the switch box. But not all HDMI switches can be operated from the recliner, and even among those that can, it's still another remote to lose.
If true, Foxconn is not getting the next contract for it. Loose lips sink ships, Terry. Learn to keep your pie hole shut.
Honestly the iTV is a dumb idea. Now an iSight camera that plugs into the AppleTV3 to give you face time at home on your TV... That's a smart idea.
The TV market is so saturated with a fight for the lowest price, I cant see apple make any inroads at all.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Unless this thing is a touch display I fail to see the point of such a specialized device. Apple tv units can be upgraded to support things like Siri if they chose to go that route in the next gen. Why would anyone assume Apple would release a niche device like this?
If anything, Apple iTV is a myth perpetrated by Foxconn to increase their own market value. The market clearly indicates that people like the hockey puck set top boxes but are not interested in televisions with built in premium functionality. I'm not even sure the iPad 7" is legit. Wouldn't a Bluetooth 4.0 enabled smart watch based off the nano make more sense? A major iPhone overhaul? AR glasses?
Any of these things make more sense to me than iTV. The future is in the personal wireless network. Not an Apple branded television.
It has to be more than tech. I'm thinking there's some sort of maybe revolutionary probably evolutionary content deal.
How about this: the Apple functionality is still a little AppleTV-like box that unplugs from the back of then TV so you can upgrade that part of it like people do with their smartphones.
Maybe implement all the functions in reprogrammable FPGAs so you can do "hardware" updates by just reflashing the configuration PROMs.
it would be stupid to alienate people who already have a TV. I don't care if Apple gives me free Cable TV for life, I wouldn't just punt my existing TV out the door.
I hate anything made by Apple even though I'm going to be excited when the first clone comes out.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Or another function you need to add to a Harmony remote.
One could buy a traditional Apple TV box and a port multiplier for the price of a Harmony remote. I have never seen a Harmony remote used in any of the households I've been in.
and what happens when Comcast cuts you off for useing to much data?
One could buy a traditional Apple TV box and a port multiplier for the price of a Harmony remote. I have never seen a Harmony remote used in any of the households I've been in.
So where exactly can you find an Apple TV box and a port multiplier for $79.99 ?
http://www.logitech.com/en-us/remotes/universal-remotes/devices/6621
There are many harmony remotes, I'm giving the price for the one I have. The pricing starts at $29.99 for the 300 and goes up to $349.99 for the 1100.
Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
according to the Terry Gou, CEO of Apple's main hardware supplier Foxconn, in a brief interview with the newspaper China Daily.
The same executive that is proud to treat his workers like animals? Sounds like it.
The newspaper reports that the device will feature 'aluminum construction, Siri, and FaceTime video calling' and will be manufactured by a 50-50 joint venture between Foxconn and the Japanese manufacturer Sharp;
This means that it'll have the Sharp name, but the shoddiness that is the hallmark of Chinese hardware (but not of Japanese hardware). It'll be OK since Apple throws the label on it and thus makes it immune from criticism. Any hardware failures will be excused while evidence of it will be considered modbomb worthy.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
My fault; I just saw a bunch of the $109 to $199 models when I Googled harmony remote. But does, say, a Harmony 300 come with a warranty that it'll have a particular device's codes built into it?
Why not touch...or even better...gesture? No one is going to to shell out $2k for a television with JUST a built in apple TV. I would however drop $2k on a wall mountable 46" ipad without even flinching. Apple does have recent patents on gestures in front of cameras built into display bezels and Siri requires some kind of secondary input. Most don't have the time to be fumbling for their phone or tablet when they want directions or quick information on the way out the door. Not without a better secondary than a hand held device that you may have to go out of your way to grab.
I prefer to say Aluminium than Aluminum... Aluminum is soooo hipster and Californian... bleh.