‘Tis the season for Apple analyst Gene Munster to call for an Apple HDTV next year

@reckless expect Apple to move 25M+ iTV units in Q2. Random polling of homeless people standing outside an electronics store window agrees.


Gene Munster (@genemunster) November 20, 2012

In recent months, several reports from Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, and most recently Jefferies seem to indicate Apple is in talks with cable companies for a new Apple TV-related service. It depends on whom you ask as to whether that service would center on a next-generation Apple TV set-top box or mark Apple’s introduction of the much-rumored Apple HDTV. There are still a couple analysts betting on an Apple TV set in the near future. Peter Misek of Jefferies is one. Misek estimated sales of 4.9 million units in CY13, and Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster is once again adding to the rumors today…

Munster, who has many times in the past predicted a full-fledged Apple HDTV, reported in a note to clients today that Apple will launch a TV set in time for the 2013 holiday season (via Business Insider). Not to be confused with a possible refreshed TV set-top box, Munster believes Apple will release an HDTV somewhere between 42-inches and 55-inches and priced between $1,500 and $2,000.

Perhaps more interesting than the Apple TV rumor is Munster’s claims that Apple is set to launch a new radio service in March of 2013—possibly alongside a Retina iPad mini. As for the rest of Munster’s 2013 roadmap for Apple: in June 2013, he is predicting previews of iOS 7, OS X, and new Retina MacBook Airs.

Munster’s other not-so surprising predictions from the note:

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…An iPhone 5S in September as a “modest upgrade”, and possibly a redesigned 9.7-inch iPad that would closer resemble the design of the iPhone 5 and iPad mini.

Gene downs his white wine in a single gulp and calmly smashes his first-gen Apple TV through his Samsung TV screen. “It's over,” he says.


nilay patel (@reckless) November 20, 2012