Spring launch for Apple OLED TV with Siri, says retail mole
Apple's voice-controlled 42in OLED TV could be out this April. Assuming, of course, that the Mac maker is indeed working on such an improbable beast.
That it's gearing up to launch such a product on the late April/early May timeframe has been claimed by "a high-ranking source with a major electronics retailer", cited by Engadget …
The irony is Samsung were a huge supplier for Apple until they screwed them over - now the tables are turned and Apple will be competing with Samsungs other markets.
"Apple will be competing with Samsungs other markets."
That should be interesting. I can't wait to see how Apple will differentiate their products (and justify their customary premium pricing) in the shipbuilding, construction equipment, capital infrastructure construction project, aeroengine, bio-pharmaceutical, and insurance markets...
Hint: Samsung don't just make 'phones, fondleslabs, and cheap TVs... :-)
Of course they can, they can happily charge a ridiculous amount for the TV's, which will offer pointless extras that nobody actually wants, and the fanboys will queue up in their thousands to buy, just because it has a half eaten bit of fruit stuck on it.
I can just picture one of the technology review programs on the TV demonstrating "Siri : change to channel 27" at which point the TV hehttp://www.reghardware.com/Design/graphics/icons/comment/trollface_32.pngars its own output and changes to channel 27 :)
"Hint: Samsung don't just make 'phones, fondleslabs, and cheap TVs... :-)"
You missed the point - the point being that Samsung turned the tabled on Apple by directly competing (copying) it's products (despite being a supplier to Apple) and now things are reversing. Was not suggesting Apple were about to start building ships - but it's a fairly high-risk strategy to compete with your customers.
I hope that other manufacturers will cease and desist selling rectangular screens that display TV pictures. That's blatantly an Apple design feature ;-)
Yes, but Plasmas still use rather more electricity than LCDs and a gen-u-ine Apple TV with poor eco-fiddling credentials would cause all the fanbois' heads to explode at once.
If you look at the price point Apple chose when launching the iPad and consider how well it seemed to work. Ok some cheapskates wanted it to be sold for $99 but I think the general consensus in hindsight is that thay got it about right.
My guess is that Apple will approach pricing of their TV (if there is in fact one) in the same way.
If history is anything to go by, the existing TV manufacturers may well get a big kick up the posterior.
We shall all just have to wait and see won't we?
It's Friday. The sun is out. Off down the Canal to the Pub for Lunch.
The fruit logo won't make people buy something they don't want
#
The current Apple TV is available at under a ton on the high street right now, and no one is buying it. Just because it's designed in Cupertino doesn't mean it will sell. Simply adding a big screen and voice control to the current proposition doesn't really change the equation. I'm sure Apple already know this. However, hate Apple as much as you like, but in creating the iPhone and iPad they have learnt a thing or two about what makes a truly disruptive, market defining, product. It'll be interesting to see if they manage it again with this new evolution of the Apple TV, or if it will be another flop. My money's on something new and something interesting that will have competitors racing to emulate it faster than you can say android.
Seems fairly pointless to me having voice control on a Telly. I imagine the commands would be
"TV ON"
"Switch to Sky channel"
*use Sky remote for next 3 hours*
"TV Off"
Seems another instance of Apple adding Shiny Shiny at the expense of functionality, I'll stick to my Bravia thanks. I mean it wasn't exactly cheap, but I still expect it to be half the price of this thing, with better picture and sound.
"the major brands lose money on the sets they sell."
Excuse me for probably being dumb, but how does this work commercially? I can see how it works with a games console, where you make the loss back through media sales, but how does this work for TV's?
Basically the big players are burning big piles of cash in the TV business with little chance of getting it back. Hence Sony's credit rating downgrade. Things are somewhat brighter for those with LCD plants (LG and Samsung) but for everyone else it is a brutal business of falling prices, 6 month lead times on panel supplies and aggressive competition from everyone else who needs to sell the quantities they planned 6 months earlier.
And if you do plan reduced quantities someone else will buy the panels cheaper and you will have an even bigger problem selling the products you do have at a reasonable price. Don't forget the dealers and their significant margins either. If they get out of the market entirely the will be many displaced staff, no opportunity to return to the market, loss of ability to sustain branded retail stores (Sony Centres, Panasonic etc.) and therefore big risks to other perhaps profitable sectors such as cameras. Then there is pure ego and hope, we can turn it round, next year will be profitable becausewe have ....(great product, cut costs, the market will pickup, rising star will run the division etc.)
Unlike the computer business there isn't the same level of fairly steady selling price for increasing performance either so although I don't have numbers available to confirm it the total market revenue has probably fallen massively over the last few years even if TV quantities haven't.
This doesn't mean that Apple can't enter the market successfully but it won't be easy.
If rotten Fruit sell it, people will buy it. They'll pay way over the odds for what is essentially a low quality item with a high prestige badge.
Of course, the people who will buy such a thing will be of low gene quality to do so and of questionable mental capability, but that is the core buyer of the rotten fruit brand - Mentally deficient, emotional retards with too much money and not enough sense to come in out of the rain who ought not to be allowed to breed, but that's only my humble opinion of course.
NB: The "I'll get my coat" actually looks more like a corporate fruit person stealing from someone's coat to me but what do I know?
... a few different workable form factors for computers
... a couple of workable form factors for phones
... a couple of workable form factors for tables
Apple can sell a limited range of products and still compete in those markets.
TVs come in many, many form factors, because they have to fit in with people's available space and lifestyle choices. TVs come in all price ranges from cheap to ludicrously expensive.
I seriously doubt there is room to make Apple-style profit margins in the TV marketplace.
i want a new tv/digi recorder. I can't find anything to export to the ipad easily to be able to watch recorded shows on trips - so i really hope apple will enable it and therefore holding out to buy anything until they have it, let's just hope it's under 2k, since a good TV is anyway around 1.8k. So at least I am ready to buy one, if it works like that, because I want my units to work well together.
...I guarantee it will run IOS and have a wireless link, enabling it to act like a giant iPad. Apple fans will flock to buy a device easily providing full-screen angrybirds and instant-on youtube served in a way that is familiar to them.
So again it's less about the hardware, and more about the percieved quality of services it can access.
to the plan (assuming there is a plan, and this isn't just another Tony Smith random rumour.)
Apple is primarily a content company. The ability to open up the TV market and claim a slice of TV advertising must be irresistible.
Apple already has iTunes. An open TV content market similar to the app store and to iBooks would be an easy win.
Of course, content would only be streamed to the Apple TV and iDevices, so you'd have to buy one before you could start creating your own content.
This is used to be called podcasting, but Apple-specific iOS TV hardware would take it to a new level.
Whether this is good or bad is debatable. Good TV still costs shedloads of cash to make. But enough people are earning a few pennies on YouTube to make it worth thinking about.
And Apple only needs to host the content and charge its usual 30% tax/toll for provider access to make an even bigger pile of cash than it has now.
...all Apple needs to do is address the following points:-
1. Integrate STB and TV and make the software fast and responsive - I'm frequently being greeted with "Please Wait..." messages or very slow redraw times.
2. Make the UI intuitive. Most UIs I've seen have "designed by programmers" written all over them - on my STB it takes four or more clicks to record a program (click V+, select set new recording, select record from TV guide, select All channels, scroll to find program - slow, click to record)
3. Get rid of almost all the buttons on my remote control - really, why are we typing in channel numbers? I'm sure a controller with a click-wheel and a good UI could do everything my 30 button controller could do.
It amazes my that no other TV / STB maker has taken the Apple UI ideas and produced something that has Apple's quality to it.
I did see one remote control many years back that just had a central clickable scroll wheel with a volume rocker to the left and channel change rocker and the right. It was so easy to use.
I've got a top-end Samsung TV and I'm shocked at how bad the UI design is. I'm very surprised that no-one has figured out that doing it smarter could be a winning strategy.
Some TV systems have hundreds of channels. If I'm watching channel 2 and I want to go to channel 619 (say) then it's much faster to type the three numbers than to scroll through hundreds of channels I don't want.
Granted there are UI options such as lists of favourite/recent channels, but sometimes typing the channel is faster.
Given the experience of the existing AppleTV though, any new Apple remote may be very minimal so you may end up happy.
Plenty of people hate it even before they know what it is!
#
It's amusing to see how many people in this thread are saying how they don't want the features the Apple TV will offer before they even know what they are!
Having seen what effect Apple's arrival had on the music industry, digital music players, tablets, netbooks and laptops, and mobile phones, I imagine TV executives are not sleeping too well at the moment. This is the lull before the storm for them. This is not a good time to buy a TV.
If Apple sells 100,000 TVs, the media will hail it as ground breaking success that will change TV watching as we know it.
If exactly the same TVs, with exactly the same technology, were released by any other company, they'd only be covered in the specialist AV press and they'd have almost zero impact on the man in the street.
Apples power to influence our world is a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy - the same products, released by somebody else, won't have the same impact.
Can't see either LG or Samsung licensing OLED to Apple as it will give them a serious competitive in the same field. I guess there is room for someone else in, maybe China or Taiwan, to make the screens but these plants are humongously expensive to build and this takes time. Both Samsung and LG have invested heavily in the technology and, therefore, own a lot of the patents even if the process technology for scale might be coming from someone else (Dupont).
FWIW Samsung's gone from zero to hero in electronics in just over ten years. It's currently charging similar prices for hardware to Apple and, as the figures show, selling its devices nearly as well.
Two articles of possible interest: the history of Samsung and where it's going (good background reading for the author).
http://www.economist.com/node/21530976
How little Samsung makes per I-phone and, therefore, a damn good reason not to sell Apple components*:
http://www.economist.com/node/21543174
* Patents on screen manufacture and design gives plenty of reasons to *license* technology to competitors.
Posted Saturday 28th January 2012 08:07 GMT
Anonymous Coward
How will Siri discriminate between your voice...
#
...and any voices in the tv programme you're watching? This could get irritating very soon if the iTelly changes channels because of the dialogue.
Register
Spring launch for Apple OLED TV with Siri, says retail mole
Apple's voice-controlled 42in OLED TV could be out this April. Assuming, of course, that the Mac maker is indeed working on such an improbable beast. That it's gearing up to launch such a product on the late April/early May timeframe has been claimed by "a high-ranking source with a major electronics retailer", cited by Engadget …
This topic is closed for new posts.
Posted Friday 27th January 2012 10:56 GMT #
Anonymous Coward
The irony is Samsung were a huge supplier for Apple until they screwed them over - now the tables are turned and Apple will be competing with Samsungs other markets.
Posted Friday 27th January 2012 11:10 GMT #
Jonathon Green
"Apple will be competing with Samsungs other markets."
That should be interesting. I can't wait to see how Apple will differentiate their products (and justify their customary premium pricing) in the shipbuilding, construction equipment, capital infrastructure construction project, aeroengine, bio-pharmaceutical, and insurance markets...
Hint: Samsung don't just make 'phones, fondleslabs, and cheap TVs... :-)
Posted Friday 27th January 2012 12:00 GMT #
Metavisor
Clearly he meant "Samsung Electronics" which only does that, plus home appliances.
Wouldn't be hard to make better microwaves than Samsung tbh.
Posted Sunday 29th January 2012 17:35 GMT #
Robert E A Harvey
I've been in a few Samsung shipyards, and they are something Apple could not emulate!
Posted Friday 27th January 2012 11:05 GMT
thesykes
Can they make money? #
Of course they can, they can happily charge a ridiculous amount for the TV's, which will offer pointless extras that nobody actually wants, and the fanboys will queue up in their thousands to buy, just because it has a half eaten bit of fruit stuck on it.
Posted Sunday 29th January 2012 00:25 GMT
Anonymous Coward
Mummy not get you that iPad? #
And now you are all bitter.
Posted Friday 27th January 2012 11:05 GMT
Neil 44
Review programs on TV #
I can just picture one of the technology review programs on the TV demonstrating "Siri : change to channel 27" at which point the TV hehttp://www.reghardware.com/Design/graphics/icons/comment/trollface_32.pngars its own output and changes to channel 27 :)
Posted Friday 27th January 2012 11:20 GMT #
Anonymous Coward
"Hint: Samsung don't just make 'phones, fondleslabs, and cheap TVs... :-)"
You missed the point - the point being that Samsung turned the tabled on Apple by directly competing (copying) it's products (despite being a supplier to Apple) and now things are reversing. Was not suggesting Apple were about to start building ships - but it's a fairly high-risk strategy to compete with your customers.
Posted Friday 27th January 2012 11:39 GMT #
Greg 16
I hope that the Apple TV isn't a rectangular screen that displays TV pictures - I hate to see them 'copying' anyone.
Posted Friday 27th January 2012 11:46 GMT
dotdavid
Alternatively #
I hope that other manufacturers will cease and desist selling rectangular screens that display TV pictures. That's blatantly an Apple design feature ;-)
Posted Friday 27th January 2012 11:23 GMT
Neill Mitchell
Siriusly? #
Johnny: I want to watch Spongebob!!
TV:Flick
Sophie: No, I want Peppa Pig!!
TV:Flick
Parent 1: Johnny, Let Sophie watch Peppa Pig.
TV:Flick
Johnny. Nooo! I want Spongebob
TV: Flick
Parent 2: No Johnny, it's Peppa Pig or the TV is going off
TV:Flick,switch off
:)
Posted Friday 27th January 2012 12:39 GMT #
Anonymous Coward
I blame the parents.
Spongebob every time.
Sophie's going to grow up to be a right sow.
Posted Friday 27th January 2012 11:25 GMT #
Anonymous Coward
To summarize "Apple planning OLED TV and it will be very expensive"
... think the word "OLED" is probably redundant!
Posted Friday 27th January 2012 13:36 GMT
FatsBrannigan
Or to put it another way #
"Apple not planning TV, which won't be either OLED or expensive, when it doesn't come to market sometime after never.
Meanwhile, analysts and rumour-mongers continue to evangelise fast tracks to Apple's commercial suicide while trolling for clickbait"
Posted Friday 27th January 2012 15:32 GMT
Mike Richards
Don't forget #
The televisual deep throat also let on the mind-blowing factoid that Apple was going to release something that was 'very thin'.
Here's my stab-in-the-dark prediction for which I'm dropping the usual consultancy fee - it will also be very shiny.
Posted Friday 27th January 2012 11:38 GMT
JDX
Oh Jeez #
I DON'T WANT TO TALK TO MY F***ING TV
Posted Friday 27th January 2012 12:47 GMT
Anonymous Coward
What about shouting at it #
During soccer matches, and Party Political broadcasts?
Posted Friday 27th January 2012 12:48 GMT #
Anonymous Coward
"Oh Jeez → #
I DON'T WANT TO TALK TO MY F***ING TV"
Actually, I quite like the idea. Especially if the person who is on the TV at the time gets to hear my comments. Real Interactive TV.
A whole new slant to Question Time and political interviews.
:o)
Posted Friday 27th January 2012 11:41 GMT #
Greg 16
"Advanced LCD screens can deliver comparable picture quality and will be cheaper."
Comparable in what way? LCD can produce good pictures, but plasmas are far better, and OLED are even better than Plasma.
Posted Friday 27th January 2012 16:22 GMT #
TeeCee
Yes, but Plasmas still use rather more electricity than LCDs and a gen-u-ine Apple TV with poor eco-fiddling credentials would cause all the fanbois' heads to explode at once.
Posted Friday 27th January 2012 12:38 GMT
Steve Davies 3
Pricing #
If you look at the price point Apple chose when launching the iPad and consider how well it seemed to work. Ok some cheapskates wanted it to be sold for $99 but I think the general consensus in hindsight is that thay got it about right.
My guess is that Apple will approach pricing of their TV (if there is in fact one) in the same way.
If history is anything to go by, the existing TV manufacturers may well get a big kick up the posterior.
We shall all just have to wait and see won't we?
It's Friday. The sun is out. Off down the Canal to the Pub for Lunch.
Whoopee.
Posted Friday 27th January 2012 12:49 GMT
radioaktivty
The fruit logo won't make people buy something they don't want #
The current Apple TV is available at under a ton on the high street right now, and no one is buying it. Just because it's designed in Cupertino doesn't mean it will sell. Simply adding a big screen and voice control to the current proposition doesn't really change the equation. I'm sure Apple already know this. However, hate Apple as much as you like, but in creating the iPhone and iPad they have learnt a thing or two about what makes a truly disruptive, market defining, product. It'll be interesting to see if they manage it again with this new evolution of the Apple TV, or if it will be another flop. My money's on something new and something interesting that will have competitors racing to emulate it faster than you can say android.
Posted Friday 27th January 2012 12:49 GMT #
Bodhi
Seems fairly pointless to me having voice control on a Telly. I imagine the commands would be
"TV ON"
"Switch to Sky channel"
*use Sky remote for next 3 hours*
"TV Off"
Seems another instance of Apple adding Shiny Shiny at the expense of functionality, I'll stick to my Bravia thanks. I mean it wasn't exactly cheap, but I still expect it to be half the price of this thing, with better picture and sound.
Posted Friday 27th January 2012 16:24 GMT #
TeeCee
But you wouldn't be using Sky, you'd be using Apple TV.
Apple do not sell "pick and choose" components for the likes of you and me, they sell entire ecosystems.
Posted Friday 27th January 2012 12:50 GMT
Powelly
Loss on each set #
"the major brands lose money on the sets they sell."
Excuse me for probably being dumb, but how does this work commercially? I can see how it works with a games console, where you make the loss back through media sales, but how does this work for TV's?
Posted Friday 27th January 2012 19:31 GMT
Joseph Lord
I'm not sure it's you being dumb #
Basically the big players are burning big piles of cash in the TV business with little chance of getting it back. Hence Sony's credit rating downgrade. Things are somewhat brighter for those with LCD plants (LG and Samsung) but for everyone else it is a brutal business of falling prices, 6 month lead times on panel supplies and aggressive competition from everyone else who needs to sell the quantities they planned 6 months earlier.
And if you do plan reduced quantities someone else will buy the panels cheaper and you will have an even bigger problem selling the products you do have at a reasonable price. Don't forget the dealers and their significant margins either. If they get out of the market entirely the will be many displaced staff, no opportunity to return to the market, loss of ability to sustain branded retail stores (Sony Centres, Panasonic etc.) and therefore big risks to other perhaps profitable sectors such as cameras. Then there is pure ego and hope, we can turn it round, next year will be profitable becausewe have ....(great product, cut costs, the market will pickup, rising star will run the division etc.)
Unlike the computer business there isn't the same level of fairly steady selling price for increasing performance either so although I don't have numbers available to confirm it the total market revenue has probably fallen massively over the last few years even if TV quantities haven't.
This doesn't mean that Apple can't enter the market successfully but it won't be easy.
Posted Friday 27th January 2012 12:50 GMT
Ben 4
Of course it'll make money! #
Fanbois will be falling over themselves to get hold of one of these, even if it means re-mortgaging their homes!
Afterall, it'll have that logo!
Posted Friday 27th January 2012 12:50 GMT
tanj666
Of course it will make money #
If rotten Fruit sell it, people will buy it. They'll pay way over the odds for what is essentially a low quality item with a high prestige badge.
Of course, the people who will buy such a thing will be of low gene quality to do so and of questionable mental capability, but that is the core buyer of the rotten fruit brand - Mentally deficient, emotional retards with too much money and not enough sense to come in out of the rain who ought not to be allowed to breed, but that's only my humble opinion of course.
NB: The "I'll get my coat" actually looks more like a corporate fruit person stealing from someone's coat to me but what do I know?
Posted Friday 27th January 2012 13:50 GMT #
Ioan
at least, you're absurdly funny!
Posted Friday 27th January 2012 13:46 GMT
FatsBrannigan
There are... #
... a few different workable form factors for computers
... a couple of workable form factors for phones
... a couple of workable form factors for tables
Apple can sell a limited range of products and still compete in those markets.
TVs come in many, many form factors, because they have to fit in with people's available space and lifestyle choices. TVs come in all price ranges from cheap to ludicrously expensive.
I seriously doubt there is room to make Apple-style profit margins in the TV marketplace.
Posted Friday 27th January 2012 13:53 GMT
Ioan
holding out #
i want a new tv/digi recorder. I can't find anything to export to the ipad easily to be able to watch recorded shows on trips - so i really hope apple will enable it and therefore holding out to buy anything until they have it, let's just hope it's under 2k, since a good TV is anyway around 1.8k. So at least I am ready to buy one, if it works like that, because I want my units to work well together.
Posted Friday 27th January 2012 14:12 GMT
Anonymous Coward
It will make money because... #
...I guarantee it will run IOS and have a wireless link, enabling it to act like a giant iPad. Apple fans will flock to buy a device easily providing full-screen angrybirds and instant-on youtube served in a way that is familiar to them.
So again it's less about the hardware, and more about the percieved quality of services it can access.
Posted Friday 27th January 2012 16:15 GMT
TheOtherHobbbes
I think this is closer #
to the plan (assuming there is a plan, and this isn't just another Tony Smith random rumour.)
Apple is primarily a content company. The ability to open up the TV market and claim a slice of TV advertising must be irresistible.
Apple already has iTunes. An open TV content market similar to the app store and to iBooks would be an easy win.
Of course, content would only be streamed to the Apple TV and iDevices, so you'd have to buy one before you could start creating your own content.
This is used to be called podcasting, but Apple-specific iOS TV hardware would take it to a new level.
Whether this is good or bad is debatable. Good TV still costs shedloads of cash to make. But enough people are earning a few pennies on YouTube to make it worth thinking about.
And Apple only needs to host the content and charge its usual 30% tax/toll for provider access to make an even bigger pile of cash than it has now.
Posted Friday 27th January 2012 14:12 GMT
deive
↓ #
but will it get http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/01/26/ipad_fleshlight_design/
Posted Friday 27th January 2012 14:12 GMT
mamsey
Not me #
Even if I was sat alone in my living room I would still not talk to the TV, now a mind/thought interface would be a much better bet.
Me vs. Apple TellyTalky
Me: Topgear
ATT: Songs of Praise
Me: TOPgear
ATT: Eastenders
Me: TOPGEAR
ATT: Coranation Street
Me: Were's the fuc**ng remote.
Posted Friday 27th January 2012 14:24 GMT
Skizz
It's easy... #
...all Apple needs to do is address the following points:-
1. Integrate STB and TV and make the software fast and responsive - I'm frequently being greeted with "Please Wait..." messages or very slow redraw times.
2. Make the UI intuitive. Most UIs I've seen have "designed by programmers" written all over them - on my STB it takes four or more clicks to record a program (click V+, select set new recording, select record from TV guide, select All channels, scroll to find program - slow, click to record)
3. Get rid of almost all the buttons on my remote control - really, why are we typing in channel numbers? I'm sure a controller with a click-wheel and a good UI could do everything my 30 button controller could do.
It amazes my that no other TV / STB maker has taken the Apple UI ideas and produced something that has Apple's quality to it.
I did see one remote control many years back that just had a central clickable scroll wheel with a volume rocker to the left and channel change rocker and the right. It was so easy to use.
Posted Friday 27th January 2012 19:41 GMT
Graeme Sutherland
TV UI Design #
I agree.
I've got a top-end Samsung TV and I'm shocked at how bad the UI design is. I'm very surprised that no-one has figured out that doing it smarter could be a winning strategy.
Posted Friday 27th January 2012 22:07 GMT
Hugh McIntyre
Re: why are we typing in channel numbers #
Some TV systems have hundreds of channels. If I'm watching channel 2 and I want to go to channel 619 (say) then it's much faster to type the three numbers than to scroll through hundreds of channels I don't want.
Granted there are UI options such as lists of favourite/recent channels, but sometimes typing the channel is faster.
Given the experience of the existing AppleTV though, any new Apple remote may be very minimal so you may end up happy.
Posted Friday 27th January 2012 15:47 GMT
Dennis 6
Plenty of people hate it even before they know what it is! #
It's amusing to see how many people in this thread are saying how they don't want the features the Apple TV will offer before they even know what they are!
Having seen what effect Apple's arrival had on the music industry, digital music players, tablets, netbooks and laptops, and mobile phones, I imagine TV executives are not sleeping too well at the moment. This is the lull before the storm for them. This is not a good time to buy a TV.
Posted Friday 27th January 2012 16:28 GMT
TeeCee
Alternatives. #
Wouldn't a "big iMac" be sailing rather close to the trademark of a certain vendor of ersatz meat products?
Posted Sunday 29th January 2012 17:34 GMT #
Robert E A Harvey
That would be so funny to watch!
Posted Friday 27th January 2012 16:40 GMT
Wile E. Veteran
Jimmy Fallon on voice-controlled TV #
"...I said, 'CRAP' and the TV switched to 'Jersey Shore'."
Posted Friday 27th January 2012 17:57 GMT
Al Jones
Define Success #
If Apple sells 100,000 TVs, the media will hail it as ground breaking success that will change TV watching as we know it.
If exactly the same TVs, with exactly the same technology, were released by any other company, they'd only be covered in the specialist AV press and they'd have almost zero impact on the man in the street.
Apples power to influence our world is a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy - the same products, released by somebody else, won't have the same impact.
Posted Friday 27th January 2012 19:09 GMT
Charlie Clark
Selling the crown jewels #
Can't see either LG or Samsung licensing OLED to Apple as it will give them a serious competitive in the same field. I guess there is room for someone else in, maybe China or Taiwan, to make the screens but these plants are humongously expensive to build and this takes time. Both Samsung and LG have invested heavily in the technology and, therefore, own a lot of the patents even if the process technology for scale might be coming from someone else (Dupont).
FWIW Samsung's gone from zero to hero in electronics in just over ten years. It's currently charging similar prices for hardware to Apple and, as the figures show, selling its devices nearly as well.
Two articles of possible interest: the history of Samsung and where it's going (good background reading for the author).
http://www.economist.com/node/21530976
How little Samsung makes per I-phone and, therefore, a damn good reason not to sell Apple components*:
http://www.economist.com/node/21543174
* Patents on screen manufacture and design gives plenty of reasons to *license* technology to competitors.
Posted Saturday 28th January 2012 08:07 GMT
Anonymous Coward
How will Siri discriminate between your voice... #
...and any voices in the tv programme you're watching? This could get irritating very soon if the iTelly changes channels because of the dialogue.
Posted Sunday 29th January 2012 16:16 GMT
Outcast !!!
Siri this #
Siri, play my porn collection!
This topic is closed for new posts.