KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who has a very good track record with his Apple predictions, believes that the company will release an A7 Apple TV in 2014. Kuo doesn’t expect a television set until 2015 or 2016.
We expect Apple to launch a new version of the Apple TV with an A7 processor in 2014, and we forecast 2014 shipments to total 8.2mn units. Shipment growth will be limited unless Apple is able to integrate more TV content, services and its App Store, in our view.
Kuo sees content and establishing a supply chain as the factors holding up the release of a television.
We believe the slowdown in Apple TV shipments suggests Apple faces challenges in integrating TV content and services. If Apple wants to launch iTV, the challenges of integrating content and service are more difficult considering the different TV content ecosystems (e.g. cable operators) in various countries. Moreover, establishing an iTV supply chain is very costly. Thus we believe iTV launch will be delayed to end-2015 or early 2016 at the earliest.
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