Will Apple's revolutionary iTV be the new iPad?
Tech giant set to shake up television world next year
29 November, 2011 by IT Reviews Staff
Apple new iTV system looks set to do for TV what the company's iPhone did for the mobile phone, promising a display television that can understand users' voice commands and gestures.
According to a report in The Guardian, analyst Peter Misek of American Bank Jefferies has revealed that Apple has asked Sharp to begin commercial production of Apple iTV screens in February, 2012.
According to Misek, "Other TV manufacturers have begun a scrambling search to identify what iTV will be and do." He believes that other companies would definitely want to avoid the mistakes that businesses in other industries have made when trying to compete with the Cupertino company.
Apple’s plans for the TV have fuelled the rumour mills for quite some time, and were strengthened in October by a patent filing for "real-time video process control using gestures", even including the possibility of editing videos using gestures.
Apple isn't alone in this field, though. Progress has been made by a Chinese manufacturer, Hisense, which unveiled an Android-powered TV that can be commanded by the user waving their hands.
Any move by Apple could could spell trouble for existing cable TV and satellite TV providers, as Apple would certainly want the new iTV to capitalise on its existing apps, entertainment and cloud eco-systems.
It's believed that the drivign force behind the iTV was the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who is quoted in an authorised biography as saying: "I'd like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use. It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud. It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it."
