Apple TV: the rumours evaluated

It's the rumour that refuses to die and the myth that keeps on giving … pageviews. Serial Apple-rumourist Gene Munster is at it again. In a 15 minute Bloomberg Radio program (obligingly summarised here by Business Insider's Henry Blodget and here by 9to5Mac) the PiperJaffray analyst issues his umpteenth version of the prediction: Apple's TV is real. It will be 'The Biggest Thing In Consumer Electronics Since The Smartphone'. As if this weren't bold enough, Munster also predicts that Apple's TV set will be announced this year and will 'freeze the market for five months'. Naturally, the design will be bold: '… just a sheet of glass, no edges or bevels'. Let's start with a bow to the power of desire and the company's reputation: wouldn't it be grand to have a magical TV-done-right? A Jony Ive hardware design, a UI purified of the ugliness and complexity foisted upon us by operators (cable or satellite) and set-top designers (Motorola, General Instruments), iOS-based, controlled via Siri, fed by a completely remodeled iTunes and App Store… Apple keeps barging into existing markets it didn't invent – MP3 players, smartphones, tablets – and manages to go home with a big share of the game. It does this by skillfully rethinking the device, inside and out. With the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad, Apple offered sleek, elegant, cohesive form factors ... and it did more: it provided a new ecosystem. The process started with iTunes (selling separate songs and micro-payments), which provided a debugged foundation that made the iPhone the first ''app-phone'' and paved the way for the iPad. Why can't Apple do something similar for its hypothetical TV set? Is it just a lovely, comforting fantasy? Today's TV experience is far from magical. A few weeks ago, I bought a 47in LG Smart 3D HDTV on post-Christmas sale. At $990 (£626), the thin, easy-to-install, internet-connected TV sounded good.