On An Actual Apple Television
Regularly reappearing rumor of Apple selling an Internet-enabled television.
If this ever happens, it begins with apps for the current Apple TV set-top box. This means a debut at a future WWDC, giving developers plenty of time to craft apps specific for a television, probably with the iPhone / iPad as controller. It will have to be treated like an entirely new platform because of the UI considerations — nobody wants iPhone / iPad apps running in a magnified mode or controlling apps meant for a touch screen with the Apple remote.
After that is a television proper. And the timing will be better a year or two from now. Right now, LCD television prices are dropping fast. Producing companies will get increasingly squeezed and desperate for new features (note all the hype around 3D) to justify higher prices. Once LCD prices have bottomed out and the makers are struggling with new features - that’s where Apple could swoop in with a high-end, Internet-enabled TV loaded with movie rentals, Netflix, apps (meaning a built-in game system with your iPhone / iPad), and heck, slap FaceTime on there, too.
Could Apple release a television without apps? Sure, but I believe they’d go for the gutsy, platform creating move. A huge value-add justification consumers (needed for people to trade in their current TVs), and if successful, the competition would be unable to compete.
So an Apple TV proper sort of makes sense, but seems a few years off. The first sign would be an Apple TV-specific developer platform. And I doubt we’ll see anything of the sort this summer.