Icahn Confident Apple is Working on Television as Munster Gives Up on the Idea

Just as Gene Munster announces he was wrong in predicting that Apple will release a television set, Carl Icahn confidently asserts that he believes Apple will do a TV.

Those of you who have been following iClarified know that Piper Jaffray’s senior Apple analyst, Gene Munster, has been predicting that an Apple Television is just around the corner since 2009.

Yesterday, the WSJ published a report claiming that while Apple had been working on a television, it cancelled its plans to make the device last year.


Subsequently, Munster issued an investor note today admitting he was wrong about the television.

“Given how adamant we have been about the reality of an Apple television,” he says, “it’s hard to accept the reality of no Apple television.”

Where Did We Go Wrong?
We have been talking about an Apple television for the better part of the last decade. While it is a small consolation that the article affirms that Apple was actually working on a television during that period, in the end we were wrong in our constant expectation of the product.

Interestingly, as Munster was giving up on the idea of an Apple television, Carl Icahn was making a prediction for one. Yesterday, he posted a lengthy open letter suggesting that Apple was undervalued and that the company had plans to make a car and a television. After reading the WSJ's report, Icahn wasn't dissuaded, calling the report ridiculous.


"I don't even know what it says," said Icahn. "I read the article," Icahn said, "not what Tim Cook said or didn't say, but the whole thing is ridiculous ... I'm not backtracking in anyway. I believe they will do a TV. That's my belief."

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