With a lot of new reports regarding the iPhone 5 and the rumored iPad mini this week, you might have missed a little blurb regarding the highly anticipated Apple HDTV.
Speaking at a news conference in Shanghai this past week, Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou explained that Foxconn is already taking steps to prepare for the manufacture of a forthcoming Apple HDTV. Further, Gou said that Foxconn’s recent deal with Sharp will advance the current state of LCD technology.
Gou said Foxconn is making preparations for iTV, Apple Inc’s rumored upcoming high-definition television, although development or manufacturing has yet to begin.
iTV reportedly features an aluminum construction, Siri, and FaceTime video calling.
Foxconn’s recent 50-50 joint venture factory with Sharp in Japan is one of the preparations made for the new device, Gou added.
That sounds great and all, but to borrow a few lines from Jack Nicholsan in A Few Good Men: Apple, please tell me you have more invested in this TV than simply Siri and FaceTime!
Indeed, there have been no shortage of rumors regarding what Apple is planning to do to differentiate its HDTV offering from the rest of the field, an undeniably challenging proposition given that one can currently pick up some amazingly sleek sets with breathtaking displays for under $1000. To that end, a number of rumors have hinted at Apple trying to secure an a’la carte model with content providers which would enable users to only pay for the cable channels that they actually watch. But getting content providers on board has proven to be particularly challenging for Apple.
Either way, Samsung, a market leader in HDTVs, isn’t worried in the slightest.
A few months ago, Samsung AV product manager Chris Moseley said:
We’ve not seen what they’ve done but what we can say is that they don’t have 10,000 people in R&D in the vision category.
They don’t have the best scaling engine in the world and they don’t have world renowned picture quality that has been awarded more than anyone else.
TVs are ultimately about picture quality. Ultimately. How smart they are…great, but let’s face it that’s a secondary consideration. The ultimate is about picture quality and there is no way that anyone, new or old, can come along this year or next year and beat us on picture quality.
So, from that perspective, it’s not a great concern but it remains to be seen what they’re going to come out with, if anything.
And one more point of interest – back in April we reported that Sharp began mass production of new displays which utilize IGZO (indium gallium zinc oxide) materials. These displays, should they find their way into an Apple HDTV, would provide twice the detail “at the same transparency”, resulting in a device that uses less power and space for backlighting, and ultimately a thinner form factor.
via China Daily
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Sun, May 13, 2012
News, Rumors