60-inch Apple iTV to be controlled by iRing remote? You may have had it up to here with reports that Apple is juuust about to release a full-on big-screen television – such rumors have been clogging the interturbes since at least 2009 – but the most recent one has a wrinkle that you, dear Reg reader, might find of interest: you'll wear its remote on your finger. So wrote …
I would say 1500-2500 is an optimistic price for an "Apple" branded TV. i wouldn't expect The avg 60inch right now starts around 1500, Apple will never sell them even close to cost it will be least 2500 to start cause if apple can't price it at a premium to make ton of cash off it they won't even do it.
That's a common misconception — the more proper version would be that Apple will always charge a premium where the market supports it. For example, yhere was never more than about £15 difference between a ~£200 iPod and the relevant Creative competitor and the Apple TV is exactly the same price as the equivalently specified Roku.
That said, the lesson of the 2007 iPhone launch is that they do sometimes grossly misjudge the price the market is willing to pay so it's definitely possible they'll launch very high before having to about face.
do i need to point at apple's desktop market. Their mac pro line THEY STILL charge same price they did 3 years ago for a machine that is 3 year old parts.
----
The reason Apple does this is because they want to maintain the price point of a "Mac Pro". If they started lowering the price over time to account for having last year's CPU and so on, then people would react negatively to the large price increase they'd see when they spiffy new model comes out. So long as people keep buying the long in the tooth model, and I assume they still are, they can keep the price the same and just lower it right about the time they announce the new model to clear out remaining stocks of the old one.
The reason this works so well for them on the desktop is because there has been relatively little change in desktop performance in the last few years. Intel comes out with new CPUs that 5-10% faster than the old ones, the world yawns, and most people aren't too worried about getting the newest ones possible like they were a decade ago when a new generation CPU was always a big leap over the old one. CPU updates make more of a difference in laptops since while (most) people don't care much about the 5-10% faster part, they do care how it uses less power thus allowing more battery life (or a smaller battery and lighter laptop) Power usage doesn't matter much on the desktop to most people, which probably explains the lack of effort toward getting a newer Mac Pro model out the door.
given that it's a well known media outlet worldwide- lots of countries have an iTV. And in these countries it's well enough known that they wouldn't be able to reasonably buy them out- or even do their normal thing and claim that Apple were there before hand!
Also, gesture tracking that needs you to carry a sensor is sooo Nintendo circa 2007. Or Minority Report from 2002. Or various other prior arts. We've had consumer-grade widgetless tracking for years now from Microsoft (Kinect) and Samsung (their hand-wavy TV thing).
And the puns would be awful. Need to recharge? "Man, I need more juice in my ring". "You want to control the TV? Here, put your finger in my ring". And so on.
>After all they did blag the name Apple from the Beatles' company of that name.
There is company called Orange who make mountain bikes, and another who are a telecoms company. There is a company called Pace who make mountain bikes, and another of the same name who make set-top boxes. You don't confuse the manufacturer of musician's kit Boss for the company who clothed the Waffen SS, or for the former SA security force.
>Consider it.. ...a badge of ownership.
A little bit like the Bang and Olufsen key-fob remote control:
" With it you are able to turn on the radio, TV and lights as you step through the door and switch everything off again as you leave! " though it strikes me, for the same functionality, you'd be better off with a wall-mounted unit next to your front door.
-http://www.beoworld.org/prod_details.asp?pid=734
A ring? Seriously? I won't believe it until I see it, and even then, I'll just point and laugh. People thought it was silly to have to wear glasses to watch 3D TV content. Wearing a glowy fashion fail just to change the channel is hilarious.
Time to break out the popcorn....
Anyone parent of a toddler knows that the ring will be lost within hours, and won't be seen again until several years later when it is found buried in dust inside a heating vent or deep in the crack between dishwasher and drawers.
(Yes I did just say that the ring can be found deep in the crack... what of it?)
>found buried in dust inside a heating vent or deep in the crack between dishwasher and drawers.
Losing it seems only of the chief issues. The best remote controller I saw was the size of a house brick and painted hi-vis orange - a remote for a overhead gantry in a factory. That looks great, I told the fitter, no way that can get easily lost like a TV remote.
"You'd have thought so," he replied "but some cnut always manages to hide it in his toolbox"
>Rechargeable, so it needs to spend time on an induction pad every few hours?
You missed the Reg article on Apple's patents on selective wireless charging with a range of around a metre
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/02/apple_wireless_charging_patent/
Besides, it might be the size of a wedding band, or it might be more like one of those little ring mice people use for presentations, or it might be complete bunkum.
"Besides, it might be the size of a wedding band, or it might be more like one of those little ring mice people use for presentations, or it might be complete bunkum."
My money's on complete bunkum.
Just sizing it so that it fits any given mug fanboi consumer is only one part of the problem - another is that the consumer will often be part of a family, so even if it fits the family member who normally hogs the remote, when that person isn't around it's unlikely to fit whoever is second (and so on) in the pecking order.
The other thing mentioned: The 9.7" iTV thing? As the article highlights, that's the same size as the iPad. My money is therefore not on it being a separate device, but an iPad app. That's assuming the Apple TV, as described, is real anyway.
> another is that the consumer will often be part of a family
Good point, and it has given me an idea- with more devices capable as acting as a remote control (traditional IR, phones and tablets over Blutooth, WiFi, whatever) there is more scope for conflicting instructions being issued to the TV/Set Top Box. My solution? When a multi-user command conflict is detected, the users are thrown into a quick bout of Tetris/Tekken to decide who has 'the power' for the next half hour.
I use the word 'solution' in the broadest sense etc...
How will they size it? Those fat chubby 'murican nacho cheeze stained fingers aren't gonna fit in no european or asian sized holes.
And hopefully they float as well as being water proof, maybe with rfid tracking? cause parents are gonna be fishing them pretty regularly out of bowl after a intestinal voyage.
This post has been deleted by its author
What functionality could this ring have?
(1) control volume up/down and skip forward/back on all Apple devices
(2) Lost your iPod/iPhone/iWhatever? Press a button on the ring and your devices will chime one after the other.
(3) Eventually, the volume/channel functionality will be removed from Apple devices and consolidated in the ring.
(4) Don't even think of building cheaper rings - Apple will have patented it to hell and back so you will have no other options.
--------
Or in other words:
iRing to rule them all;
iRing to find them;
iRing to bring them all
And to Apple bind them,
In the land of Cuppertino
Where the iOS lie.
A great quote from Arthur C. Clarke: "If an elderly but distinguished scientist says that something is possible, he is almost certainly right; but if he says that it is impossible, he is very probably wrong."
You, sir, sound like you're saying it is impossible for an "iRing" to control more than volume and skip forward/back. But c'mon. More than a few times, Apple has pulled a rabbit out of a hat. Let's see what they do before we declare that they can't do anything.
It would be similar to the iRing, except a bit bigger... and you wouldn't wear it on your finger. With every thrust you gain extra points with Angry Birds Solo, for BDSM freaks there's Cut the Rope, and imagine the fun you'll have 'poking' that girl's profile what you saw at that party last night or whatever.
I doubt very much they wil be trying to get a slice of the Samsung/LG/Panasonic cake. If they take the same approach to their TV's as they do to their computers and pads I would sooner think they would be positioning them for the B$O buying audiences, in which case a 60" may very well set you back around 10K.
But that's just a stabin the dark.
This has already been done before http://www.laptopmag.com/review/accessories/hillcrest-loop-and-kylo-web-browser.aspx. For several years now Kylo TV browser has used the 'loop' or ring device to control its TV browsing application. The apple iRing device looks incredibly similar and has a very similar application. The loop has been around for at least 3 years already. So this will be interesting.
But they didn't enter an existing mature, even saturated, market to reach those high margins. People keep TVs for a long time. Potential for new sales is limited.
Customers have widely differing needs for sizes etc of TVs. Apple likes to sell a limited number of models.
The only advantage Apple gets from selling a TV set versus a set top box is that the logo is under the screen rather than on it. If the existing set top box (which has sold a few million) is a hobby, selling (or trying to sell) a TV set will then be a folly.
Think of the iPhone model where the power of the telcos was circumvented and they were treated as dumb carriers. The screen is one of the low margin parts fo the value chain. The smart place to be is in the set top box with a continuing revenue stream from content
....of massed fanbois with their heads bowed, playing with their rings (no, no, wait for it) as if they were magical prayer beads. iMonks for the cult of Jobs. Anyway I always thought that fanbois were perceived as too cool to be indoors watching TV like some pot bellied Sky-man.
Unless they're intended for each viewer to have their own, to "personalize" the TV experience for them.
I subscribe to the "analyst wanted publicity, trawled old Apple patents, somehow managed to come up with an Apple TV rumor we haven't heard before" theory. Why would a ring that can easily be lost and has to be charged somehow be better than a Kinect-like sensor that just looked at your finger, which never needs charging and isn't likely to be lost unless you're a shop teacher?
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2025
