Gene Munster gives up on Apple television dream

iTV concept (iTV or Apple TV, Martin Hajek 001)

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster has become something of a joke in the broader analyst community. Arguably the most vocal proponent of a fully-fledged Apple television set, he’s been predicting the imminent arrival of a 50+ inch TV with the shiny Apple logo on it for years now.

He wasn’t alone in his predictions. Most recently, noted activist investor Carl Icahn put much faith in the mythical Apple Ultra HD TV set in a yet another letter to Tim Cook yesterday.

But as a new report by The Wall Street Journal alleged that Apple has indeed axed the project after researching it for nearly a decade, Munster was quick to admit that he’s been wrong all along.

Giving up on his dream of a glorious Apple television set, Munster wrote in a note to clients aptly titled “Facing The Reality of No Apple Television” that he should have known better after spending “the better part of the last decade” calling for such a product.

“Given how adamant we have been about the reality of an Apple television, it’s hard to accept the reality of no Apple television,” reads the analyst’s note. “Our latest thinking prior to this story was that Apple would launch a television in 2016. Based on this report, we no longer expect a television to launch indefinitely.”

In his defense, Munster wasn’t alone in his Apple TV dreams.

“Originally we had expected that content was the reason for the delay; however, we misidentified the true reason for delay, which was a lack of perceived killer features as reported by the WSJ,” he said. “We incorrectly assumed that a combination of Siri, FaceTime, a TV app store, and PrimeSense based motion control could be compelling enough as a unique feature set for the device.”

Daisuke Wakabayashi of The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Apple shelved plans to bring out a fully-blown television set. What’s particularly interesting about that report is the acknowledgment  that Apple did spend a decade experimenting with TV sets in one form or another.

“In addition to an ultra-high-definition display, Apple considered adding sensor-equipped cameras so viewers could make video calls through the set,” WSJ wrote.

At any rate, this is quite a remarkable U-turn for the analyst who has made a name for himself in the Apple community by predicting vaporware products, wouldn’t you agree?

Even if an Apple HD TV isn’t on the horizon for the foreseeable future, the Cupertino firm is still expected to bolster up its living room presence.

By the next month’s WWDC, Apple is widely expected to launch a next-generation Apple TV console said to run third-party apps and games via an upgraded processor and an App Store of its own, integrate more tightly with the Apple Watch, provide an interesting new remote control and more.

Source: Business Insider