Apple To Offer Customized Channel Lineups on iHDTV

Apple has had a lot of success revolutionizing the smartphone and tablet markets in the past couple of years. The company is now setting its sights on the TV business. We have heard about Apple being interested in bringing its own TV sets to the market for a very long time. But it seems the timing is now right for the company to offer a big change in this business. According to Digitimes, Apple will launch a 32 inch and a 37 inch iHDTVs in the summer of 2012. These will have all the features of the current Apple TV and a super simple interface (plus Siri integration).

For the iTV to be a success, the company’s focus should be on giving its customers content choices. There are rumors that customized channel lineups will be part of the deal. Apple is hoping to bring an Internet-based content subscription model to its television sets. It won’t be easy though. The licensing process will be very complicated.

This is obviously much more complicated from a licensing standpoint … And in our view, would change the game for television and give AAPL a big leg-up against the competition.

Sterne Age analyst Shaw Wu explains. Apparently, hardware and technology are not the reasons Apple has not released a TV set to the market already. After all, these folks know how to put together shiny, capable devices. Apple could always integrate its offering with a cable or satellite subscription service already available or go the IPTV route.

The top content providers are going to play tough with Apple. They are going to resist big changes in their industry. The company is not stopping Apple TV sales by any means. After all, not everyone will be ready to invest a considerable amount of money on an iTV. We can’t exactly tell when these TVs will make it to the market. Digitimes suggests these products will be rolled out by the end of 2012. That remains a rumor at this point.