Billionaire investor pushes Apple to introduce UltraHD TV

Oct 10, 2014 14:55 GMT  ·  By

Carl Icahn is at it again. After seeing his buyback propositions rejected, he’s now on Apple’s case with a new open letter to Tim Cook and some typical advice to do the shareholders good.

Icahn believes Apple should again start to aggressively buy back its shares and give cash back to shareholders, and he uses every trick in the book to convince Tim Cook to give the company’s CFO a green light to do it.

Ichan is eyeing the living room

But there’s one interesting tidbit of information in his open letter to Cook that we have yet to analyze. It’s a reference to a potential television set that Apple would do well to introduce in 2016, according to Icahn. From the actual letter:

“As we highlighted in our previous letter, we believe UltraHD’s (ultra-high-definition television) superior picture quality in comparison to regular HD will drive a major TV replacement cycle as the price gap between them narrows. It should also be noted that Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, has referenced UltraHD as a major catalyst for Netflix going forward, and while this is true for Netflix, we believe it is also true for Apple. Against the backdrop of this replacement cycle, FY 2016 represents an opportune time to introduce an UltraHD TV set.”

Does the magnate know something we don’t? What a silly question. Of course he does. He knows a hundred billion more things than we do. But does he know anything of Apple’s plans to introduce a TV set to the market?

The current state of affairs

Apple has toyed with the idea for quite some time, and the company continues to sell a $99 (€78) set-top box branded Apple TV that really only puts a lot of VOD on your big screen and very little live programming (or at least very little that you’d actually be interested in watching).

The company’s plans to take over the living room have hit tremendous roadblocks, mainly because of the content providers and the cable industry that just won’t barge. For obvious reasons, too.

Apple is left selling a box that hopes to one day become a true media hub, complete with live TV access and even home appliance controls. There is already evidence of that in the recent patent applications filings.

In related news, a report out of India yesterday got us a bit worried that Philips had leaked Apple’s plans to partner up with the electronics maker and introduce an LED television with Apple TV functions bundled inside. As it turned out, Philips was selling a regular LED TV bundled with the Apple TV set-top box as a bonus.