Apple’s long-shelved plans to design an Apple-branded smart TV rear its head over a decade after its cancellation in the face of a new “home control center” product that fuses Apple Intelligence, the iPad Pro and smart home functionality.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman claims that Apple’s new smart home tablet concept stems from its aim to potentially “revisit the idea of making an Apple-branded TV set.” This smart home iPad will, according to Gurman, make or break its TV plans, serving as the central hub for later product concepts to come.
This wouldn’t be the first time Apple has dabbled in the TV-making business, with one project in the works dating back to the late 2000s. An Apple-based TV set was first put forth and carried mainly by Steve Jobs. It would have leveraged OLED technology, but the project would inevitably be scrapped in favor of delivering some of the best streaming devices like the Apple TV 4K.
An Apple TV could add fuel to an ever-growing, ever-volatile TV market that’s no sooner being pervaded with cheaper Chinese designs. If it leveraged Apple’s new innovative tandem OLED design, it would be even more exciting and be a rare opportunity for Apple to enter an entirely new space with something truly breathtaking. It could lead to Apple offering one of the best TVs, but time will tell if that happens.
Apple’s rumored TV strategy
Despite shelving its plans to develop in-house TVs many years ago, Apple might be shifting its sights on the market again. The tech giant tried not once but twice to produce a TV in the late 2000s and even in the 2010s, though neither project came to fruition.
However, it might be about to change, as Mark Gurman of Bloomberg claims Apple is rethinking its developmental resources to try its hand at a wide array of home-based products. Gurman gives examples like “mobile robots, privacy-focused home cameras, and speakers,” then adds, “It may even revisit the idea of making an Apple-branded TV set, something it’s evaluating.”
It may even revisit the idea of making an Apple-branded TV set, something it's evaluating. But if the first device fails, Apple may have to rethink its smart home ambitions once again.
Mark Gurman
This new TV from Apple could rely on the potential of a purported smart home hub, a kind of iPad built primarily to control assorted Apple smart home devices. It will tout Siri and Apple Intelligence like a tablet, mirroring similar offerings like the Google Nest Hub.
Again, to be clear, the Apple TV screen itself is a mere concept and is still in the early stages of development, while Apple focuses on delivering a new home hub tablet. An Apple-made TV screen makes for an interesting new product that would easily take on the likes of Samsung and LG, but we’ll have to wait a bit longer before an Apple TV screen can fully take shape.
Apple's OLED TV killer
But what would an Apple smart TV even look like? While there's no doubt it would be pretty expensive, mirroring its $3,499 Vision Pro counterpart, an Apple TV screen would most definitely sport an OLED panel just like its shelved early design.
Several photos surfaced in 2017, shown here via FlatpanelsHD, highlighting the potential of an Apple OLED TV, which was most likely put on the burner in the early 2010s when the second generation of Apple TVs picked up steam. Today, some of the best OLED TVs are bred by the likes of Samsung, LG, and Sony — but cheaper Mini-LED designs from TCL, Hisense, and Roku dominate the market.
Apple could inject serious competition into the OLED market on the back of Panasonic's return to the U.S. market. Apple's OLED smart TV could use tvOS built on a tandem OLED panel design with nano-texture upgrades, as seen on the M4 MacBook Pro, for minimized screen glare.
The nano-texture alone would be a pretty decent foil to the market rulers in Samsung and its anti-glare coating on the Samsung S95D OLED TV. The more recently launched Panasonic Z95A has one of the best speaker systems in the TV market, which Apple could readily challenge given its design of some of the best headphones.
It's still very early, and this is all based on speculation, as Apple could easily drop any efforts it might have in TV production at a moment's notice. As mentioned, its TV strategy will depend on how well its smart home hub does — but there's no question that an Apple OLED TV could be something special.
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