Venture capitalist Stewart Alsop (an early investor in TiVo) reportedly has heard multiple sources throughout Silicon Valley speak of an Apple television project that is already underway and is on pace for a 2012 debut. The rumored television seems like it will never be a mass market item like the Apple TV. The Apple iMac, the integrated computer+lcd solution from Apple, starts at $1199, which places it at the more expensive end of the computer market. So however nice the Apple TV may look, it still probably won't be as competitively priced compared with other brands using similar technology.
The naysayers may think that it will just be an Apple TV unit integrated into a TV, but Apple will not go into a commoditized Television market business. Apple is about providing a service that helps simplify a user’s experience of technology. No, the new Apple TV won’t be like the old Apple-TV-box stuffed inside of a television. It will be more like an iMac with integrated set-top box for cable and satellite, iChat camera, online video services like Hulu, VUDU and YouTube, and of course Apples App Store.
