With the rise of tablets and smartphones, smaller screens are outselling bigger ones. And we seem more likely to replace our iPhones and our iPads far more rapidly than our big screen HDTVs. On the business side, sales of big screen TVs are slowing down. "Overall, global flat-panel TV shipments were down 7 percent in August,
the third straight month of decline compared to their levels during the
same time a year ago in 2012." The holidays are coming and expectations are that sales will rise, but manufacturers are concerned and will be aggressively lowering their prices to capture market share.
So why should Apple even consider this business. Consumers have gotten comfortable with the box behind the TV set and seem less likely to upgrade their TV sets, even for an Apple television. With gaming consoles like XBox and Playstation driving streaming and OTT, consumers care more about the content then an all-in-one TV set. And that is why Apple should place more emphasis on their Apple TV product and focus on more ways to make it both cloud and hard drive ready. Focus on content deals and pursue a rental business to complement its iTunes sale business. Let the Apple TV box work behind any TV set and let others sweat over the big screen set. And if you want to sell a big screen monitor; great. Just let it work with all your devices.
