Apple’s Mythical iTV

I don’t know if Apple is planning to release an “iTV” at some point, but this is the wrong approach competitors should be taking. According to Chris Moseley, AV product manager at Samsung:

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.

He makes a good point: TVs are about picture quality. The thing is, I’ve never seen another brand of computer monitor (perhaps high-end NEC displays, but those are on a different pricing level) hold a candle to the picture quality you get from any of Apple’s modern LCDs. Picture quality just isn’t going to be an issue if Apple ever ships an iTV.

The quote above reminded me a lot of a statement Palm’s then-CEO Ed Colligan made back in 2006 about the rumored iPhone:

“We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone. PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.

We all know how that turned out…