Foxconn Accelerating Sharp LCD Panel Orders to Launch Apple Television for Holiday Season?
In a new research note published today, Topeka Capital Markets analyst Brian White points to a new report from Chinese business site 21cbh.com claiming that Foxconn/Hon Hai has accelerated its schedule for ordering television-sized LCD panels from Sharp, fueling speculation that the panels are destined for an Apple television set that could debut in time for the holiday shopping season this year. Foxconn and Sharp announced a partnership earlier this year to advance LCD technology, a move some observers have seen as closely tied to an Apple television set.
This morning, the Chinese character version of 21cbh.com indicated in an article that Hon Hai Precision expects to start receiving LCD TV panel orders from Sharp in 3Q12 instead of 4Q12 as was originally planned. Recall, Hon Hai invested in Sharp earlier this year to secure LCD panels that we believe will largely support a new Apple TV. Based on a recent interview by 21cbh.com with a Sharp executive and information from sources at the company, the online news source believes the order is for the new Apple TV and could be available for the holiday season. In our view, a holiday launch would make for a very merry holiday season for Apple and consumers. However, we will continue to monitor the data points surrounding the timing of this launch as they could change.
In his new note, White also reiterates his claims from earlier this month regarding Apple's use of Kinect-like motion sensing technology for controlling the forthcoming television set, with the device also including an iPad-like touchscreen remote.
White continues to be one of the most optimistic analysts regarding Apple, maintaining his 12-month price target for the stock at $1,111. He believes that Apple could generate $10 billion in revenue from its television set in the first year, operating under the assumption that Apple's device will command a higher price than its competition's products and that the company will be able to grab 2% of the LCD television market in its first year.
Popular Stories
Apple has announced it will be holding a special event on Tuesday, May 7 at 7 a.m. Pacific Time (10 a.m. Eastern Time), with a live stream to be available on Apple.com and on YouTube as usual. The event invitation has a tagline of "Let Loose" and shows an artistic render of an Apple Pencil, suggesting that iPads will be a focus of the event. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more ...
Apple has dropped the number of Vision Pro units that it plans to ship in 2024, going from an expected 700 to 800k units to just 400k to 450k units, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Orders have been scaled back before the Vision Pro has launched in markets outside of the United States, which Kuo says is a sign that demand in the U.S. has "fallen sharply beyond expectations." As a...
Apple today released several open source large language models (LLMs) that are designed to run on-device rather than through cloud servers. Called OpenELM (Open-source Efficient Language Models), the LLMs are available on the Hugging Face Hub, a community for sharing AI code. As outlined in a white paper [PDF], there are eight total OpenELM models, four of which were pre-trained using the...
Apple is finally planning a Calculator app for the iPad, over 14 years after launching the device, according to a source familiar with the matter. iPadOS 18 will include a built-in Calculator app for all iPad models that are compatible with the software update, which is expected to be unveiled during the opening keynote of Apple's annual developers conference WWDC on June 10. AppleInsider...
The upcoming iOS 17.5 update for the iPhone includes only a few new user-facing features, but hidden code changes reveal some additional possibilities. Below, we have recapped everything new in the iOS 17.5 and iPadOS 17.5 beta so far. Web Distribution Starting with the second beta of iOS 17.5, eligible developers are able to distribute their iOS apps to iPhone users located in the EU...
Top Rated Comments
I would be extremely happy if it looked something like this:
Or this:
Why is that whenever Apple looks into larger displays, it has to be a new AppleTV? Why not the more obvious answer of a new Cinema Display? After all, a new 4Kish display for Pro users and one to compliment the new MacBook Pro would make sense.
What about screen size? Are they going to have different options for different needs? We know how Apple has been historically about options, and you can't enter the television market with just one or two sizes available and expect to make everyone happy.
Even the hardcore Apple fans I know aren't going to run out and replace their televisions just because Apple starts making one, I don't care what "killer feature" it has. The TVs in my house are all doing the jobs they're intended to, and I'll only replace one when that changes. Not before.
I firmly believe that if Apple starts selling a television, it's going to be one of their occasional duds. I'm sure the tech will be impressive, I just don't think they're going to be selling them by the truckload like they're used to doing with iPhones and iPads. An Apple Television just doesn't make sense. I just don't think Apple can make any money off of it.