[citation][nom]derkman[/nom]If Apple will ever decide to make a TV this how the process will go:1. Apple releases a TV. It lacks many features that HDTVs have had for years.2. Next year, release a new TV with a FEW features that were missing in the first generation and market it as magical and revolutionary.3. Repeat step 2 over and over for every generation.[/citation]
Step 1 - Apple releases a product which has the fastest hardware of any device in its genre, with the most and highest quality apps.
Step 2 - Some people stuck in the 80's complain due to lack of SD card slot in this wireless world, the rest of the world doesn't care given the vast amount of alternatives and cheap accessories which allow use of SD cards (or replaceable batteries, or HDMI etc.)
Step 3 - Apple products outsell all the competitors combined.
Step 4 - Consumer satisfaction surveys reveal that Apple products are the favourite, with Samsung (the leading Android competitor) 2nd bottom.
http
/www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/05/its-official-cell-phone-users-most-satisfied-with-apple-not-so-much-with-rim/
Step 5 - Angry haters cry on tech forums that the 'mainstream' option that the phone their 'less tech savvy' mate owns is actually better than their 'cheap alternative'.
Lets compare to Android release cycle?
1 - Release phone which is as close to a copy of an iPhone as possible without breaching copyright laws but with slower hardware and a laggy, buggy, freezing operating system with poor battery life, connected to an inferior app store, but add a little plastic SD card slot for slow file access. Allow battery to be replaced because it will need to be far quicker than if it was an Apple.
2 - 6 months later, notify users that the phone they bought 6 months ago will not receive the latest software update, they will need to buy the new phone.
3 - Release iterative 'improvement' to the phone which barely catches up with the 7 month old hardware of Apple, market it as 'inspired by nature' - because nature produces bulky electricals with oversized screens. Be sure to add a slightly inferior copy of the innovations Apple added to their phones half a year earlier.
4 - Be sure to come second bottom in customer satisfaction surveys but take advantage of the irrational Apple haters who will allow you to milk them for all that they are worth even if your product is massively inferior.
5 - Convince those irrational guys that producing slower hardware at the same price point as Apple, using free open source software is actually evidence that Apple is too expensive.
6 - Rinse customers and repeat