NFL
By: Rick O’Donnell
There’s been a long rumor that Apple is working on reinventing the television set in your home. No not the Apple TV add-on you plug into your HDMI port and no not the Apple TV+ subscription service you watch your favorite episodes of Ted Lasso. No, the rumor is Apple is getting into the physical television market with an Apple tv, but how exactly would Apple attack this market?
For the most part, it’s a head-scratcher. Apple typically has a limited design on their devices. Take the iPhone for instance, for the most, part they have their iPhone Pro, Pro Max, and SE. Three different sizes and the same can be said of the iPad, iPad mini, iPad Pro, and iPad Air. The television market is a bit more fluid when it comes to their devices. Would Apple be able to meet demands for different size televisions to make a dent in the market or would they limit themselves in terms of size? Are they capable of putting out 32″, 42″, 55″, 65″, or 72″+ at any given time or would these be standard sizes like the iMac lineup? If they are, then it would limit themselves to a niche market that only wants to fill space with an Apple product.
Then what would the television do that other smart televisions could not? Not even other televisions, what would an Apple television bring to the market that their Apple TV device couldn’t that would warrant the price hike?
Would Apple put LiDAR sensensors the television for gestures to control the device? That would be a problem as, unless you live alone and sit completely still, what would stop the TV from picking up motion as you watch? Sure, they could program it to only recognize the hand gestures of the user wearing an Apple Watch, but what about the people who use Apple Fitness+? Surely every gesture they make would prompt a response from the television as well. That’d be an easy fix with a popup before you start a workout that disables that feature but that itself could potentially be a problem. Sure, it would be cool to FaceTime on your big screen, but couldn’t they just redesign a HomePod with a camera to do the heavy lifting?
Do you see where this is going? At every checkpoint along the way, Apple would have to spend years fixing problems and reprogramming their devices to interact with a product that most people already own. They’d be creating a whole new world of communication between devices to only capture a sliver of the market. As Apple continues to realize they have a large user base, they’re trying to expand into other devices and change everyday life the way they changed music with iTunes.
They’ve hit a wall in creativity and seem to be throwing poo at the wall to see what sticks. If they can revolutionize the way we watch television, go for it. However, there doesn’t seem to be enough evidence to assume Apple will do enough to change the history of television to corner the market.
