Star Apple Analyst Gene Munster Admits He Goofed On Apple TV

After standing by his prediction for an Apple TV for years, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster has given up on waiting for the Cupertino, California, company to produce a smart television. This comes following a report that Apple Inc. shelved the idea after nearly a decade of research, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Munster held expectations for an Apple TV set as early as 2011, according to Business Insider. Activist investor Carl Icahn also predicted this possibility as recently as Monday, forecasting a 55-inch and 65-inch 4K TV from Apple, in an open letter to the iPhone maker. Both were contradicted when the report from the Wall Street Journal was published later that day.

“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,” Munster wrote. “Originally we had expected that content was the reason for the delay; however, we misidentified the true reason for delay, which was a lack of perceived killer features as reported by the WSJ.”

Without an Apple television in the pipeline, Munster’s eyes now turn towards the Apple TV set-top box, which has not seen a major revision for over three years. Apple is expected to reveal its replacement for Apple TV in June, during its annual Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.

The hardware update to the Apple TV may add a number of new features, including Siri, third-party app support and home automation control through its HomeKit software framework. A streaming content service is also anticipated, but isn't likely to launch until the Fall, according to 9to5Mac.